Unusual Tastes
by Orieon
Summary: Nick and Judy are on the case of another missing mammal after one-half of Zootopia's darling couple and the face of the interspecies movement disappears under suspicious circumstances. Along the way, what they discover will hit a little too close to home about themselves and their own partnership.
1. Chapter 1

Judy needlessly polished the brass badge adorning her vest as she examined her reflection in the mirror. Spotless and pressed, her uniform was the prime example of professionalism. She gave herself a lingering once over - not a hair out of place. Perfect. Ever since she was a kit, the uniform had been so much more than a simple game of dress-up. It was the embodiment of all of her dreams and desires; of why she hadn't settled. No matter how many times she dressed for work, she never tired of the sight.

The alarm on her cell phone chirped and Judy threw it in her pocket along with her keys as she rushed out the door. A bright red convertible and a not-so-bright red fox greeted her outside the apartment. Nick lounged against the door of the car nursing his customary cup of coffee, aviators high up on his snout to hide his tired eyes. He duly held out a similar cup that she snatched as she slid around to the other side of the car. Not bothering to open the door, Judy hopped over it and into the seat, careful not to spill.

"Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as usual I see," he observed with a sip of his coffee.

Nick was _not_ the morning type.

"Better than slack-jawed and half awake," Judy smirked as she buckled in. "Do you ever get tired of wiping drool off your steering wheel in the morning?"

Nick's only response was a mumbled grunt before he followed suit and slumped into his seat. It usually took at least two cups of coffee before Nick's sass kicked in. Realizing that it was still far too early to get much conversation out of him, Judy just savored the scent of her tea - mint today. He'd made the mistake of bringing her coffee once… and only once. Ever since _that_ incident, it had become customary for him to pick out some random flavor of tea from the shop where he bought his morning coffee. It was - usually - a pleasant surprise every morning.

The drive to Precinct One was made in companionable silence, broken only by the loud slurping of Nick and his coffee. Traffic was light this early in the morning as many of Zootopia's more nocturnal citizens were still sleeping in. By all rights, Nick should have been one of them and Judy often wondered why he chose to take such an early shift. Still, the coffee did its job and by the time they reached the station, he was looking noticeably more awake behind the wheel.

They'd barely passed through the doors of the station before Chief Bogo's voice thundered through the lobby. "Hopps. Wilde. My office, _now_!"

Judy almost dropped her tea as Nick's ears flattened against his head. Clawhauser spared them a pinched expression. "Ooouch. I haven't heard the Chief _this_ angry since… well, since the last time he yelled at you two. What'd you do this time?"

Judy exchanged glances with Nick, who was clearly at a loss as she was. "Did you push your paperwork off on one of the newbies _again?_ "

"I dunno know what you're talking about, Carrots," Nick scoffed. "My paperwork's impeccable, and I definitely remember hearing the boss toss out your name too."

Judy's ears drooped as he realized that Nick was right. Bogo _did_ bellow out her name. What did they do? Judy's mind picked over the last several work days and she couldn't think of anything! Her record was perfect! Her near panic was broken when she felt Nick's paw push against her back as he urged her forward.

"C'mon, plenty of time to worry about it later," he said and Judy was incredulous at the way he could sound so casual about it. What if they got in trouble? What if they got suspended? What if they got _fired?_

"Aww, Honey Bunny. Here, have a donut," Clawhauser offered a sprinkled sweet at Judy as she passed. "Eat those bad feelings away."

Judy waved him off as they walked to their doom. Her appetite was the last thing on her mind at the moment. She tried and failed to keep up her usual professional attitude as they made their way up the stairs. Her anxiety increased with each step and was nearly boiling over by the time they arrived in front of Bogo's office. Stepping over the threshold, they found the Chief calmly reading a report.

"Shut the door," Bogo requested without glancing up. Nick door closed behind them with a solid finality that made Judy's nose twitch. "Take a seat you two."

Judy scrambled up into one of the seats in front of Bogo's desk and tried not to fidget under his gaze. His expression was one of bored disinterest; you could've probably gotten more information by counting his ceiling tiles. Nick flashed her a double thumbs-up from below the table edge which failed to comfort her any.

After some shuffling of papers, Bogo slipped off his reading glasses and finally turned his attention to them. "How long have the two of you worked here?"

Nick was the first to respond, "About seven months."

"One year, four months, Sir," Judy nervously spat out.

"And how would you characterize your record during this time?" Bogo continued.

Nick shrugged, "I dunno, I'd say we've been pretty good."

Judy desperately wanted to elbow him. "Exemplary, Sir."

"Exemplary, hmm?" If Bogo was impressed, he didn't show it. "On that, Officer Hopps, we agree." He spared Nick a glance and added, "Next time, show a little pride, Wilde."

"Oh, I just let her take the credit," Nick grinned. "She enjoys it more."

Bogo, as usual, ignored his quip. "In the seven months the two of you have been partners, you've proven to be one of the most effective teams at the ZPD. So effective, I've chosen to overlook your… quirks. That means _you_ , Wilde."

"I like to think I bring diversity to the workplace, Sir," Nick dusted imaginary lint off his uniform and Judy had to restrain from pulling at her ears in frustration. It looked like Nick's snark only needed _one_ cup of coffee today.

Bogo continued as if Nick hadn't spoken. "Which is why I'm assigning you a special case." He pushed a thin folder across his desk. "I assume you're familiar with the Beaumonts?"

" _Everyone's_ familiar with the Beaumonts," Nick said.

"They're the couple behind the 'Love is Blind' campaign," Judy nodded. After the Nighthowlers Case, the interspecies relationship movement had been getting increasing attention in the news, magazines, and commercials; they'd even held a demonstration in Sahara Square where they rallied supporters. Of course, their actions had met resistance and the whole thing had become somewhat of a controversial topic.

"They're also the most famous interspecies couple in Zootopia," Nick drawled. "And _rich_ \- did I mention rich?"

"I'm not sure I follow, Sir," Judy prompted. "What do the Beaumonts have to do with the case?"

"The Beaumonts _are_ your case," Bogo elaborated. "We received a call from Regina Beaumont this morning reporting that her husband disappeared from their estate sometime yesterday. Due to the sensitive nature of their cause, this could easily turn political and the Mayor and I have decided to handle this case delicately. For the time being, your investigation will be kept completely quiet. That means no press and no police."

Judy still didn't follow. "Aren't _we_ the police, Sir?"

"Not for this case, you're not," Bogo deadpanned. "You'll be working out of uniform and out of office for this one. Consider the department on a need to know basis. You check in with me on your progress, and no one else. If you have to bring in any help, you run it by me first. Questions?"

 _No uniforms? Was he kidding?_ Judy sadly ran her paws over her vest, unwilling to be parted with it. And after all she'd done to earn it…

"What about our support? If we aren't working in the office, we won't have access to the database," Nick pointed out.

"That's why you're getting this," Bogo pulled out a backpack from behind his desk and slid it across the desk next to the folder. "Inside, you'll find a laptop that has access to our secure ZPD server. I don't have to remind you not to let this fall into the wrong paws, do I?"

"No, Sir. It'll be safe with us," Judy promised.

"I shouldn't need to tell you how important this case is. The two of you are here because you're the best team I have-" Bogo preempted whatever snide comment Nick was about to say with a stern look, "-and if you _ever_ repeat that, I'll have you on parking duty for a month."

"Aww shucks, Chief, and here I thought you didn't care," Nick fanned himself.

"Your work on the Nighthowlers Case was invaluable to this city and I'm counting on you to do it again. Understood?" Chief Bogo waited until they both nodded. "Good. Now you're both suspended."

"WHAT?" Both Nick and Judy exclaimed in unison.

"But you _just_ \- but what - WHY?" Judy sputtered, disbelieving.

Bogo drew his hoof across his throat for silence. " _Keep it down._ In case anyone asks, I need a cover story that'll last for however long this investigation takes."

Judy was nearly frantic at the thought of her ruined spotless record. "And you think anyone will believe that?"

Bogo's gaze flickered back and forth between them. "...Yes. And, in case you were wondering, it's a paid suspension."

"See, Carrots?" Nick nudged Judy's arm. "We're still getting paid, so no rush."

"Good, you're dismissed. Mrs. Beaumont is expecting the two of you before noon," Bogo gestured toward the door. With a pained sigh, Judy picked up the folder while Nick hefted the bag over his shoulder. It wasn't until they were at the door did Bogo call out, "And Wilde, play the part and have the decency to look ashamed for once in your life."

Nick schooled his features into a pained expression, "That hurts me, Sir, it really does."

* * *

Judy's enthusiasm had dropped considerably since the day began. In less than an hour, she'd been publicly disciplined, suspended from her job, and she had no idea how long it would take before she could return. Nick's lackadaisical attitude also wasn't doing her's any favors. He whistled tunelessly at her side as they drove back to her apartment so she could change into - _ugh_ \- regular clothes.

Judy's paw drummed on the door until a sudden thought occurred to her, "Hey, you think they'll tell everyone that this was just a fake suspension after this? Because that would really, _really_ look bad on our records."

"I'm sure I've got worse things on my record than that," Nick shrugged.

"But I don't!" Judy garnered the attention of a neighboring car before she lowered her voice, embarrassed. "This is a _suspension_ , Nick," she hissed.

"You say suspension, I say vacation," Nick said airily. "The kind of vacation where we still get to work. I'm sure you'll _love_ that."

"Y'know, some of us actually enjoy doing our job, Nick," Judy sighed. "It's just… I worked so hard to have this uniform and my position. I don't want to just _leave it._ "

As Nick slowed to a stop at a traffic light, he slipped off aviators and gave her his full attention. "Look at it this way, Judy: we're still on a case. We're not _leaving_ the job; we're just going undercover! Yeah, it'll be like a noir movie. You love those."

Huh. He was… absolutely right! "This _is_ like undercover work, isn't it?" Judy gushed. "Oh! I need to get one of those flip thingies for my badge, and a trenchcoat, and - oh - you can get a fedora. I mean, you've already got the bad tie."

"Woah there, Carrots," Nick wiggled his finger from the steering wheel. "I think the whole point is _not_ to look the part. Also, fedoras look terrible on me; you don't want to see what they do to my fur. And what do you mean my ties are bad?"

Judy tapped her finger thoughtfully against her chin, "Hmm, I didn't know foxes were colorblind."

"Good to know your funk is over," he chuckled as he drove through the light.

There was a short silence between them before Judy murmured, "Thanks, Nick."

"So emotional," Nick sighed mock-dramatically, and the car swerved slightly as Judy's fist connected with his upper arm. He gave a yelp of surprise before the ride slipped back into a companionable silence once more.

By the time they arrived at Judy's place, her neighbors were very much awake from the sound of it. She had left Nick at the car and was now debating on what to wear as she scanned her tiny wardrobe. Judy pulled out a white tank top, a purple checkered button-down, and a pair of jeans. She hurriedly changed before carefully hanging up her uniform. It hurt to part with it, but Nick was right. She still had the badge after all. She threaded it through a belt loop and excitedly practiced moving her shirt aside to flash it at the mirror a few times. Nick honked from below and she was reminded that they still had to swing by his place so he could change. After locking up, she skipped down the stairs two at a time on her way back to the street.

"Okay, let's go to your place before traffic gets any - _what?_ "

Nick leaned casually against his car, his aviators now clipped at the neck of a tan and brown bowling shirt. Even his pants were swapped out to his familiar khakis - though, sadly, his tie remained unchanged.

"Do you keep spare clothes in your car all the time?" Judy was floored. "And how did you change with the top still down?"

"Trade secret. I'd tell ya, buuut foxes only," Nick winked. "Now c'mon, let's beat the lunch hour."

* * *

Nick pulled to a stop in front of the wrought iron gates guarding the entrance to the Beaumont estate. Leaning over the door, he buzzed the intercom. After a short pause, a voice garbled through the speaker.

"State your name and business," a deep voice demanded.

"ZPD, we're expected," Nick replied, and after a moment of silence, the iron gates gave way.

Judy had never visited a mansion before. Sure, she'd seen them on television and in magazines, but nothing could have prepared her for the sheer size of it. Three stories tall and with more windows than she cared to count, it could have served as a high-end hotel. The tires bumped over the cobblestone driveway as it circled around a fountain that dominated the perfectly landscaped grounds. As they neared the mansion, the wings on either side seemed to reach out around them, shadowing the driveway.

"It sure is big," Judy observed, and Nick let out something of a strangled cough as he stifled a laugh. "Pfft. Get your mind out of the gutter."

"Hey, I said _nothing_ ," he smiled innocently. "Not my fault that a bunny's favorite subject is multiplication."

"Well, it's not my fault the only horizontal hustle you ever did involved popsicles," Judy countered as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Feeling feisty today, are we?" Nick turned off the ignition with a grin.

"No, but I'm feeling super underdressed right now," Judy grimaced. When she had looked at her wardrobe, she hadn't spared a thought of how out of place she'd look surrounded by the overwhelming poshness of the estate around her. She could practically feel silent judgement pouring out from the mansion in front of them.

"You're right, this place _is_ kinda classy," Nick fingered his tie and gave the end a sniff. "Eh, it's not like they sent us here for a fashion show."

Judy didn't understand how that was supposed to make her feel better as she hopped out of the car. Nick followed suit and the two of them walked up the marble steps leading to an ornate double door. It opened before them just as Judy was about to ring the doorbell. The doorway was filled by the bulging form of a tuxedoed hippo.

The butler peered down the end of his snout at them, "Good day. If you'd please follow me, I'll take you to the lady of the house."

Their claws clicked lightly on the marble floor as Judy tried not to openly gape at her surroundings. If she had been impressed with the building's exterior, it didn't hold a candle to what was inside. The intricate woodwork and plastered walls reminded her of walking through a fancy museum. With all the paintings on display, it'd be easy to mistake the place for one.

Nick let out a low whistle as he took in a chandelier that was probably worth more than her family's farm. "Nice place you got here."

"Indeed, the Beaumont estate has been in the family for three generations now," the butler preened.

"Old money, eh?"

"Ancient," the butler duly replied. He lead them through an arching doorway and the marble flooring beneath them gave way to the hardwood of an equally lavish sitting room. "If you could have a seat, I'll go fetch Lady Beaumont."

Judy tentatively seated herself on a rounded plush couch that circled an impossibly pristine fireplace and tried not to fidget. Nick settled himself at her side and the two of them silently took in the grandeur around them. He lightly ran a single finger over the end table and critically eyed the lack of dust.

"Are you feeling pretty dirty right now?" He frowned at his finger. "'Cause I know I am."

"Just don't touch anything," she whispered and pointedly kept her paws in her lap.

Thankfully, any potential disasters were averted by the arrival of Regina Beaumont herself. She was a regal looking jaguar, the black and grey of her fur contrasted sharply with the white dress she wore. The dress perfectly matched the style she was known for: simple yet elegant. She gracefully crossed her legs as she seated herself across from them with a tired sigh.

"Thank you for coming," she said in greeting. "I don't suppose the two of you could show me some identification?"

Judy tried not to look too eager as she flashed Mrs. Beaumont her badge. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted with quiet glee that Nick didn't look nearly as smooth as he attempted fish his badge out of a pocket. After Regina had glanced over the two of them, she visibly deflated and slumped back into her seat.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to come off as rude, but with the two of you out of uniform, and considering the circumstances, it seemed prudent to check," Mrs. Beaumont sighed. "The last day has been incredibly stressful."

"We understand, Mrs. Beaumont. I'm Judy Hopps and this is my partner, Nick Wilde. We're the officers assigned to your case," Judy tried to be comforting as she pulled out her carrot-pen and a notepad from her back pocket. Flipping to a clean page, she looked up expectantly. "Normally, citizens are encouraged to wait twenty-four hours before filing a missing mammals report. What gives you the impression that he's missing?"

"My husband wouldn't step out for this long without telling me," she insisted. "And please, call me Regina."

"I don't mean to offend, but we hear that all the time," Nick said. "How can you be so sure?"

"Twelve years of marriage, Officer Wilde; I _know_ my husband," Regina explained. "That, and I knew something was wrong when I found his study in disarray this morning. Arthur was meticulous in all things. He'd never leave such a mess and I think he may have been taken by force."

Judy wrote the details in her notepad as Nick continued, "Have you disturbed the room?"

"A bit," Regina admitted. "I almost started tidying up until I saw the claw marks. Once I realized what I was looking at, I immediately called it in to the authorities. If you'd like to follow me, I can show you his study."

"Yes, please," Judy nodded. She allowed Regina to lead them out of the sitting room and up the sweeping hardwood stairs. Careful to watch her step on the stairs, Judy continued taking notes. "Where were you at the time of his disappearance?"

"I was attending a fundraiser thrown by my family," Regina said. "Gazelle was a guest speaker at the event. We were there well into the evening and I didn't come home until close to midnight."

In her excitement, the words were out of Judy's mouth before she could stop them, "Oh - is she as nice everyone says she is?"

Regina spared her a small smile at the top of the stairs, "Even nicer. She's been a supporter of the Love is Blind movement for years and has helped our cause immeasurably."

"That's so cool," Judy gushed.

Nick elbowed Judy lightly. "I think what my partner _meant to say_ is was there anyone in the mansion at the time of his disappearance? Your butler maybe?"

"No, we run a small staff and they all have the weekends off," Regina explained. "However, I think our landscaper was here sometime yesterday. I remember seeing his van when I left for the fundraiser."

"So, who takes care of things on the weekends when your staff is gone?"

" _Nick_ ," Judy hissed, wishing the fox would show at least a _teaspoon's_ worth of tact. The curious stare Regina gave the two of them made Judy feel like she was sizing them up. _Great, now she probably thinks we're not taking the case seriously._

Instead, Regina seemed unfazed, "Somehow, we manage to survive by ourselves for at least two days out of the week."

"Just making sure you didn't eat him or anything," he smirked.

"My husband may be a stag, but I'm afraid he doesn't taste _that_ good, Officer Wilde," Regina laughed delicately and Judy had to make a serious effort not to gape at her.

"M'am, I am so sorry for my partner's comments-" Judy began before Regina waved an airy paw.

"It's quite alright," she said. "My husband and I have heard such comments whispered for years. It's rather refreshing to hear it said in jest for a change."

"See, Carrots? We're all friendly here," Nick nudged Judy's shoulder as Regina stopped at the door to the study. "Nick is fine, by the way," he winked up at her.

Judy rolled her eyes as she stepped through the door. She was instantly greeted with the sight of a room in disarray that had once clearly been used as an office. Bookshelves, paintings, and framed pictures lined the walls. The ornate oak desk at the center of the room looked like it had seen better days. Papers, books, and other knick-knacks littered the floor as if they'd been swept off the desk. The plush chair and desk had claw marks gouged into the material. All in all, it looked like there was one heck of a struggle.

"That doesn't look good," Nick sucked his teeth as he surveyed the damage. "I'll go get the kit from the car. Be right back."

Judy nodded and carefully picked her way over to the desk. Regina lingered at the doorway, as if afraid of getting in the way. While she waited, Judy took out her cell phone and swiped away the picture of the two of them Nick had put on as a screensaver. Smiling as she recalled the ridiculousness of the situation that lead to the two of them being squeezed into the frame, she opened her camera app and began taking pictures of the scene.

"Out of curiosity, are you and Mr. Wilde supporters of the Love is Blind campaign?" Regina's question interrupted the clicking of Judy's camera.

Judy honestly had never given it much thought. Why would she? "Well, I guess so," she decided after a pause. "I mean, it's Zootopia: anyone can be anything after all... and I guess that means anyone can be with anyone too."

"You 'guess'?" A look of mild confusion crossed Regina's features. "I was under the impression that you and Mr. Wilde were… close."

What did she mean by - "Oh, no - nonono - no," Judy laughed. "Nothing like uhhh - nothing like that. We're just partners - I mean, _police partners._ "

"Apologies," Regina looked embarrassed. "It's just that, from the way you two were acting - and you wear his scent so well... I'm so sorry. Wishful thinking I suppose."

Judy could feel the blood rushing up to the tips of her ears. She _smelled_ like him? Well, they did spend most of their off time hanging out, and a lot of that time was at his apartment... "Don't worry about it," she cleared her throat and tried to focus her attention on the crime scene to get her mind off the subject.

"Pity, he seems charming," Regina commented and Judy had to hold back a laugh. _Charming? Ha. You try putting up with his snark every day and see if he's so 'charming' then._

As Judy circled the desk for a different angle, she nearly stepped on a picture frame. Glancing down to step over it, she caught sight of the magazine cover framed within. The _Time_ magazine cover was a picture of Regina and Arthur Beaumont standing together and dressed as if for a formal ball - and Arthur _knew_ how to wear a tie. He framed her perfectly, arms lightly encircling Regina's waist as she looked adoringly up at him. The caption underneath read: "The Face of the Future: How Arthur and Regina Beaumont are changing views and standing up to society's double standards."

Caught up in the cover of the magazine, Judy realized just how picturesque the two of them looked together. "So tell me about your husband; how did you two make it work?"

Regina laughed lightly as she crossed the room to pick up the picture. "Pure spite," she said running her paw lovingly over the cracked frame. "Everyone told us our relationship was doomed to fail from the start. The public, our friends, even our families. 'You know what happens when the lion lays with the lamb,' they'd say, 'It never ends well.' But the more they tried to push us apart, the more we fought back. Eventually they ran out of breath, and then _they_ began to listen. In the end, they were the ones that failed…"

Judy couldn't imagine having to endure the judgement the two of them must have faced every day. Relationships among closely related mammals were hardly unheard of, but between predator and prey it was practically taboo. The Nighthowler Case had done more to challenge society's views on predators than a millennia of peaceful co-existence could. Though the Beaumont's Love is Blind campaign had been going on for almost a decade, recent events had suddenly left it front and center in the public's mind. Which meant that the Beaumonts were front and center in everyone's mind as well.

"Have you or your husband ever received any threats over all this?" Judy gestured at the magazine.

"Constantly," Regina sighed. "The outer wall of our estate gets vandalized at least once a month and we receive hate mail by the pound. Arthur and I enjoy reading them when we need a good laugh." She paused for a moment before giving Judy a heavy look. "I'm afraid, you're going to have your work cut out for you, Officer."

Judy couldn't agree more.

* * *

A/N: Hello everyone, Orieon and LittlePorcelainDoll here. If you found this story via our profiles or mentioned in our Borderlands fanfiction, _The Man Who Would Be Jack_ , thanks for fandom stalking us. We appreciate it. If not, then welcome newcomers!

Anyway, _Unusual Tastes_ is a collaborative work the two of us cooked up in an afternoon after copious amounts of nerdgasming over how good Disney's _Zootopia_ is. If you're here expecting nothing more than a ship-fic, you'll probably going to be disappointed. While the ship in this story will _certainly_ set sail, this story is primarily meant to be a neo-noir type fiction since we love the genre and hope you will too.

If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions, let us know and we'll try to get back to you. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Nick paced from one end of the room to the other, the blacklight in his paws slowly swinging from side to side as he searched for any clues. Aside from the usual tiny spots and dust that you'd expect to find in any lived-in room, there were no signs of blood. Sweeping the blacklight over the torn up desk and chair yielded similarly disappointing results. _Didn't these two have any fun?_

"I guess the office really _is_ business only," Nick observed as he checked under the desk.

"They've been married for twelve years," came Judy's voice from somewhere above as she measured the claw marks. "Pretty sure they've gotten that out of their system by now."

"I'm pretty sure they wouldn't still be married after twelve years if things got boring," he said before eyeing the desk critically. "Then again, you might throw out your back on that."

"Really?" Judy sighed and Nick could practically hear the roll of her eyes. "Can't you be a _little_ more constructive here?"

"Oh, I'm being constructive," Nick insisted. "Found a few coffee rings on the desk, and some fur - definitely stag. Oh, and dust. _Lots_ of dust. I don't think the maids clean in here. Guess that makes sense if you've got something to hide."

"The Beaumont family are all bankers," Judy pointed out. "What could they possibly have to hide?"

" _Rich_ bankers - there's a difference," he said as he gave up the search and had to jump up to flick the lights back on. He turned back and gestured to the room around them, "Anyone who gets _this_ rich probably stole from somebody along the way."

"Y'know, not everyone thinks like you," Judy hopped down from the desk and began inspecting the open slashes on the overturned chair.

"Maybe not the Beaumonts, I'll give ya that," Nick said as he casually browsed the bookshelves. "But Arthur did marry an Ambrose and their reputation isn't exactly what'd you call 'squeaky clean.'"

"You mean Regina?" Judy said between jotted notes. "What makes you think her family are criminals?"

"Maybe because they _were_." It was easy to forget sometimes that Judy hadn't lived long enough in the city to know its history. "Smuggling, trafficking, extortion, embezzlement - and that's just the stuff they got caught for. Forty years ago, the Ambrose family ran one of the largest criminal empires in the city."

"So, what happened?"

"They went legit," he said as he settled back against the desk and watched Judy work. "Went from smuggling to shipping. Now they own that market. Most everything you buy in this city comes in through them."

Judy finally glanced up from her notepad. "Then why so suspicious?"

"Old habits die hard," he shrugged. "Back when you were still on the farm and I was living the high life, I heard their name come up a few times. Nothing concrete, just rumors and whatnot. It's not like criminals are the most reliable types."

Judy's nose twitched in confusion, and Nick smirked at fact that he was getting rather good at telling her nose twitches apart. "Well, if Regina is still affiliated with the Ambrose family, wouldn't that scare away any potential threats?"

She was right; it should have. "Guess that's what we're here to find out. Got anything interesting off those claw marks?"

"They're definitely feline, and a pretty big one at that. That narrows it down _some_ , but not much," she sighed, pocketing her notebook.

It wasn't surprising. If you wanted something done by force, large predators tended to get the job done. Didn't exactly do any wonders for their reputation either. "Well, I know at least _one_ big feline in this house," Nick mused.

"It's possible," Judy conceded. "But what does she have to gain? It's not like these two lack for money. Besides, Regina's alibi puts her out of the house almost all of yesterday."

"Yeah, no real motive there. Just a thought," he shrugged. "Well, I know I saw a couple of security cameras on the way in; maybe the butler can get us a copy of the tapes. You think he'd show up if I rang a bell?"

"You do that and tell me how that works out for you," Judy said without a backwards glance as she walked out the study. She never let him have any fun. Lacking any bell in sight, Nick followed after her.

The extravagance of the mansion pressed in around Nick as he stepped out into the hallway. It wasn't that he'd never been inside a mansion before, it was just that they always belonged to mammals he'd rather not think about. When it came with that sort, the beauty really had only been skin deep. Nick hadn't been kidding about what he said to Judy earlier: it took a certain kind of ambition to reach the top, and that ambition didn't exactly walk hand in hand with kindness. And the Beaumonts were _definitely_ at the top. They weren't playing the game, they'd beaten it.

The afternoon sun showered through the arching windows as they made their way down the corridor. Nick had to strain his neck to take in the pictures evenly spaced along the wall, each depicting a different accomplishment. The Beaumonts posed with celebrities and politicians, accepted awards and gave speeches at podiums - there were even tiny plaques beneath each picture detailing the event. Some mammals had trophy cases; the Beaumonts had a trophy _hall_.

"'Arthur and Regina Beaumont accept the Helping Paws award for their contribution to the St. Bernard's Youth Hospital,'" Nick read aloud. "You think they're testing the idea that sainthood can be bought?"

"Maybe they are," Judy said. "Or maybe they just _enjoy_ helping others. Look at all of these," she gestured up to several other charity awards. "I'd call this pretty generous."

"It's easy to be generous when you already have everything," he pointed out. Although, if they were trying to get richer, this definitely wasn't the way to do it.

"Oh, Nick," Judy sighed. "Your bleak cynicism just _warms_ the cockles of my heart. Now I realise what a dumb bunny I am for having a job that's devoted to helping others."

"You know me: just here to help you consider your life choices."

"Yes, and I can never thank you enough," she hummed before coming to a halt in front of what Nick could only assume was the centerpiece of the 'hall of fame.' "Wow, that's different."

Instead of a picture, a large painting dominated the section of wall. Arthur's study served as the backdrop as he and Regina did the classic 'We're Very Wealthy' pose. Arthur sat back in a very large velvet russet armchair while Regina perched daintily on the edge, her arm draped over his shoulders. He didn't envy Regina having to balance on the edge of that chair for however long that painting took to create.

"Look at the rack on that one," he snorted.

"You're not even trying anymore," Judy said, but she laughed regardless. "Huh. She's wearing the same necklace..."

"What?"

"Yeah," Judy squinted up at the painting. "In every picture, she's always wearing the same necklace. I mean, it matches with everything, but you think she could afford a little more variety."

Nick scrutinized the painting and found a simple pearl necklace at Regina's collarbone. Glancing around the surrounding pictures, he noted that Judy was right. Regina clearly loved that necklace. "Of course you'd notice that."

"One of us has to have a sense of style-" she quipped as her nose twitched disapprovingly at his tie. "-and it's definitely not you." Judy turned back to the painting and after a moment of quiet observation, she murmured, "They make a cute couple, don't they?"

"Cute?"

"Nice then," she elaborated. "I mean they just seem… _good_ for each other. All these pictures and they always look so happy."

Nick took in the surrounding pictures, each one perfectly photogenic. It was plain to see why they were Zootopia's darling couple. "Maybe they're just playing the crowd."

Judy shook her head, "They're not. I got to talk to Regina while you were out at the car. She loves him... she really loves him."

"You sound awfully sure." He wasn't about to deny what Judy was saying, the evidence was practically all around them.

"Call it intuition," she shrugged. "They fought so hard to be together. You don't do that for someone you just 'kinda like.' What do you think of their movement?"

There were definitely some things Judy might have missed growing up in Bunnyburrow. Interspecies relationships had been around long before the Beaumonts brought it into the spotlight. No one really cared if a antelope was dating a gazelle. When mammals referred to interspecies relationships, they always meant one thing: predator and prey. He'd seen a few poor saps try to make it work over the years, but they may as well have been branded outcasts for all the good it did them.

"It doesn't matter what I think; it matters what everyone else thinks. All the photoshoots and speeches in the world aren't gonna change everyone's opinions," he said at last. "Predators and prey still have problems sharing the same city, let alone sharing the same bed."

"I didn't ask what everyone else thinks," Judy tore her eyes away from the painting and looked up at him. "I asked what _you_ think."

"I think it's more trouble than it's worth," he admitted. He could tell by the way her ears dropped that she didn't like his answer, which meant he'd just bitten off more than he could chew.

"What do you mean 'more trouble than it's worth?'" Judy's ears perked up again. "I'd be picking carrots right now if I had listened to others tell me what I could and couldn't do. You _can't_ mean that."

Of course _she'd_ say that. Judy was a force of nature, and heaven help you if you got in her way once she set her mind on something. The bunny didn't know when to quit, even when it got her in trouble. "That's different -"

" _How?_ " Judy thumped her foot impatiently. "Are you seriously telling me that you would never, _ever_ , consider dating prey?"

Nick fell silent as he grudgingly mulled over her question. He didn't exactly 'do' the whole dating thing. Being sociable had never been high on his list of priorities. Even Finnick wasn't a much of a friend, more of a business partner. Most of the mammals he knew from before didn't want anything to do with him now that he was a cop - not that he could blame them. In fact, the only friend he had now was Judy. It looked like his only option was standing directly across from him.

It was suddenly very difficult to look at her face as Nick thoughts took a strange turn. Could he? With _Carrots?_ It bothered him that he was actually considering this. It bothered him even more that he _wasn't_ as bothered as he should've been.

"If you're trying to ask me out, Carrots, you don't need to be so coy about it," he deflected, anxious to change the subject to anything else.

"Ugh, why can't you ever be serious?" she said tiredly.

"I am serious," he said. "It'll be great. We'll take the cruiser out for a date, play good cop/bad cop, and you can introduce me to your parents! I'm sure they'd _love_ having a fox in the family."

Judy punched him in the arm - a bit harder than usual. She turned wistfully back to the painting, "All I'm saying, Nick, is that if they can make it work-" she gestured up at the Beaumonts "-others can too."

"Never said they couldn't," Nick agreed. But that didn't mean it was for him.

* * *

It took another five minutes of wandering the mansion before they finally ran into another living creature. Regina sat in on a stool slumped against the kitchen island, a half empty bottle of wine on the counter and a glass in her paw. This definitely wasn't the same jaguar that had greeted them earlier. All of the poise and grace from before was gone, instead, she just looked exhausted.

Regina looked up at their entrance and suddenly seemed to realize she had company. "Officers, I know the two of you have been here all afternoon. I can ask Herbert to make us something to eat if you'd like," she said with a smile that wasn't fooling anyone.

"No, thank you," Judy said before hesitating, "Are you... alright?"

Regina visibly deflated as she dropped any attempt at decorum. "No, I'm not alright," she sighed. "My husband is missing and I'm to blame."

"You can't blame yourself," Judy consoled.

"I should have checked on him last night," Regina twisted the pearls of her necklace. "I saw the light on in his study and I assumed… I mean, Arthur worked late so often I thought nothing of it. If I had just called him to bed, I might have woken up to find him still here."

"Chances are whoever took Arthur probably took him while you were gone," Nick tried to sound assuring. Of course they couldn't prove that, but it seemed like a pointless risk on the kidnapper's part. "If they came for him during the night, you probably would've heard the struggle."

"No, I wouldn't have," said Regina. "Our bedroom is halfway across the house. They could have taken Arthur at any time and I-I wouldn't have known it."

Nick shifted uncomfortably on his feet as Regina looked dangerously close to breaking down. He liked to think he was good at reading mammals - a necessary skill in his previous line of work - and Regina wasn't faking. Judy was definitely right about the two of them: Regina did love her husband. Nick fished around for something hopeful to say, but comforting others had never been a strong suit of his. Thankfully, Judy had no problems there.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Beaumont," Judy reassured. "We're going to find your husband."

Regina considered Judy over the rim of her glass, "I believe you. If there's anything I can do to help, you have but to ask," she said and Nick was reminded of the reason why they came down here in the first place.

"Actually, there are a couple things," Nick said. "We noticed you have security cameras outside of the mansion. If you could give us the footage for the past couple weeks, it would be a good start. Also, you mentioned you get a lot of hate mail. If you still have any around, it could give us some leads."

"Of course," Regina said. "I'll have Herbert grab them for you on your way out."

* * *

Nick toed open the door to his apartment and nodded Judy through. She was carrying their - very late - lunch while he was struggling with the laptop bag and a large sack of letters. Regina hadn't been kidding about the amount of hate mail she and Arthur received. The coffee table shook under its new load as Nick relieved himself of the weight before slumping back onto his couch. He noted sourly that Judy had no trouble setting down their take-out.

"Remind me again why I got stuck carrying all of the heavy stuff?" he groaned as Judy pulled their lunch out from the bags.

"Oh, I just thought a big, _strong_ predator like you could handle it," she hummed, tossing a fork his way. "Besides: I buy, you carry. Now scoot over."

Nick obliged, fishing the fork out of the folds of his shirt - not that he needed it. The drive back had been a nightmare, the busy cafe they stopped at even more so. They had arrived just in time for the evening rush and it had taken the better part of an hour for them to make it out. Nick thrived living in the city, but even his patience only went go so far.

Judy curled up at the end of the couch with her plate and pulled out her phone. "Let's check in with Bogo, there's no way he's left the office yet," she said as she picked at her salad.

Nick gave his plate a sniff and the aroma of deep-fried crickets made him salivate. Crunching away at them two at a time, he offered one to Judy. "You gotta try one of these, they're sooo addicting," he waved one temptingly at her.

Judy wrinkled her nose and pressed her phone to her chest, "I don't do fried foods," she said before the sound of the call connecting drew her attention. "Yes, Sir, one second - I'm going to put you on speaker." Judy pressed a button and sat the phone between them. "Alright, go ahead."

"What do you have for me?" boomed Bogo from the phone, and Nick had to wonder if annoyed was the Chief's default tone of voice.

"Not much yet," Judy said. "We interviewed Mrs. Beaumont and went over the crime scene, but nothing solid so far."

"Conclusions?"

"Looks like the kidnapper was a large feline," Nick said between bites. "No blood at the scene, so whoever it was probably took him alive."

"Any suspects?"

"Well, they're rich, well known, and their cause has plenty of mammals angry," Nick said. "So, y'know, maybe only half the city."

"I need answers, not sass, Wilde," Bogo snorted. "Any leads?"

"It's been almost twenty-four hours at this point and there's been no ransom demands," Judy said. "Whoever's doing this probably isn't doing it for money. We're going to look into the possibility that Arthur was kidnapped due to the Beaumonts involvement in the interspecies movement."

"Do you have anything to go on?"

"I'm sitting next to a sack of hate mail 'bout as big as Carrots, so I'd say we got plenty for now," Nick slurped his smoothie noisily.

"Good to hear," Bogo said. "I tried getting a trace on Arthur's phone earlier today, but we couldn't get a return signal."

"'Course not, they never make it easy," Nick said.

"What about everything else on his phone?" said Judy. "Backups, cloud storage, phone records; anything could be useful."

"I'll see what I can do," Bogo sighed, "but this was supposed to be quiet and a subpoena might draw too much attention."

"If they give you too much trouble, get in touch with Mrs. Beaumont; she offered to help in any way she can," Judy suggested.

"Will do," said Bogo. "I expect a progress report this time tomorrow. Good work you two. Keep it up." Without another word, the Chief hung up and Judy locked her phone with a swipe. The two of them continued to eat for a few minutes, the silence broken only by the occasional crunch of Nick's crickets.

"So, the way I see it, things will go a lot faster if we split up the work," Nick paused to lick the grease off his paws. "You wanna read the hate mail or watch the boring security tapes?"

"I'll take the letters," Judy offered.

"Movie duty it is then," he wiped his paws off with a napkin before slipping the laptop out of the bag. After typing in his login information - twice - he slipped in the security footage and began watching.

They worked in silence for a time, the soft mumbling of Judy reading the letters lost in the hum of the computer fans. Some of the letters were as large as newspapers in her hands, while others were so small they were practically plastered against her face as she read. Nick yawned as he watched the surveillance footage speed by. Even at ten times the normal speed there was still several days of it to go through.

The mansion ran like clockwork: the same couple of early morning joggers would pass by under the cameras, then the butler would arrive at the gate, followed shortly by the maids. By the time afternoon rolled around, the mail would arrive and the gardener would stop by every couple of days. It was all so routine. The only thing that broke the schedule was whenever the Beaumonts decided to leave the mansion. A security detail would show up in SUVs to pick them up and take them to their appointments. Nick made a mental note to check in with Regina at a later time and see if they had gone anywhere important this week.

Nick knew he was getting bored right about the time he noticed that one of the morning joggers liked to color-coordinate their outfit. This definitely wasn't his favorite part of the job. Working the streets was interesting enough, and the occasional pursuit always livened things up, but he'd rather chase his own tail than sit through the downtime. He glanced over at Judy to see how she was faring, and found her nose scrunched up in a way that meant whoever had written what she was reading was lucky not to be in the room right now.

"Join the ZPD, she said," Nick sighed at the figures zipping across his screen. "You'd be great at it, she said. Die of boredom, she left out…" Indignant that he failed to get a rise out of Judy, he said, "Hey, you're supposed to lecture me when I get whiney."

"Listen to this," Judy said. "'So, is your own kind not good enough? I don't care if you want to get savage in your own bedroom, but keep it away from the rest of us prey.' Can you _believe_ this?"

 _Yep._ All too easily. "Harsh. That one's for Arthur, right?"

Judy dropped the letter before opening another, "And that's one of the nicer ones. Yeah, they're mostly for Arthur. Makes sense; there's more prey than predators after all."

"Could be what made Arthur a target," Nick mused. "It's looks worse if he disappears then if Regina does - prey and all. There's still plenty of tension between predators and prey after the Nighthowlers case, no matter how many 'diversity concerts' Gazelle throws."

"Yeah, but you gotta admit that concert was fun," Judy laughed lightly as she scanned another letter. "Wow, these just keep getting worse. And who sends _letters_ anymore? These mammals must be really dedicated. I mean, they had to pay for postage and everything!"

"Any return addresses?"

"None so far."

"That's anonymity for ya," Nick said. "If someone's _that_ offended, they'll let you know however they can. Besides, I doubt the Beaumonts are giving out their personal email addresses. So, you getting anything out of those aside from righteous indignation?"

"Other than the fact the Beaumonts don't have many fans? Nothing." Judy slumped back into her seat. "Any one of these could be our kidnapper, and that's if any of them are. What about you: anything so far?"

"Eh, more of the same," said Nick. "Other than the usual visitors, there's nothing going on. We can run checks on everyone that works there, but unless they hired somebody new, I doubt we're gonna find anything."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure their butler came with the house," she said with a small smile that faded rather quickly at the contents of another letter. "Regina said that they read these letters when they needed a good laugh. I just… I don't get how they can think these are funny."

 _Vindication is a warm and fuzzy feeling._ As Nick tried to turn his attention back to the screen in front of him, he couldn't help but compare himself to the Beaumonts. They embodied the concept of never letting others see that they get to you even better than he did. Of course, they've gone about it a bit differently. While the Beaumonts had used everyone's judgement as motivation to prove them wrong, Nick had just decided not to fight it. Looking back, it all seemed so pointless now. What did it matter if no one could see they got to you when they could still shape who you were?

It had been the thing that annoyed him so much when he first met Judy. He'd resented her for everything that she was and everything he wasn't. Judy had been right when she accused him of wanting her to fail, because if she could be more than what everyone expected, then he would have to admit that he'd been wrong all those years. He guessed he should be glad that she was too stubborn to listen and, eventually, he'd grown to admire that about her.

It shouldn't have surprised him that Judy would feel just as strongly about the Beaumont's movement. It would be out of character if she didn't. Naturally, her attitude of 'don't tell me what I can't do' would also translate to 'don't tell me _who_ I can't do,' but there was a big difference between believing something and being willing to do it yourself. After all, this had been the same bunny that, despite all her talk, still wore fox repellent when they first met.

In fact, her interrogation earlier today had really caught him off guard. Ultimately, Judy's questioning had left him feeling guilty because he couldn't give her a straight answer. There was just no easy way to tell her no. Nick knew she would've been disappointed and Judy was the one mammal in his life whose opinion meant something.

"Would you date a predator?" The words tumbled out of mouth before Nick had a chance to shut himself up. He only resisted the urge to slam his head into the laptop on the off chance that Judy hadn't noticed what he said.

A small eternity passed as he watched her out of the corner of his eye for any reaction, his heart pounding so loudly that he wondered if she could hear it. Why the hell was he so nervous about this anyway? He was just beginning to get a grip on himself when she finally spoke.

"I don't know," she said at last, and Nick wished that spontaneous combustion was a thing. "I mean, I guess if I liked him and he treated me well, sure. Oh, and I have to be attracted to him. That helps."

"So that's what gets ya goin', huh? A nice, good lookin' guy?" Nick deadpanned.

"Yeah, pretty much,"Judy shrugged.

"So if it's that easy, how many predators have _you_ dated?"

"None," she admitted. "But it's not like I had a lot of options in _Bunnyburrow._ "

"And how long have you lived in Zootopia?"

"C'mon Nick, that's different; I'm too busy to date," she sighed. "And besides, I haven't been looking. What's _your_ excuse?"

"Well, I just dislike everyone," Nick sidestepped. It _was_ accurate - mostly. In truth, he was just anxious to guide this conversation away from anything involving mammals and their dating habits. Why the hell had he opened his mouth again? He fished around for a change of subject before he could voice a reply, "Besides, I only got room for one partner in my life and something tells me you're not too keen on sharing."

"Damn right," Judy said smugly, but he caught her smile nonetheless.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey, thanks for the overwhelming amount of support you guys have given our story. We really appreciate it and it definitely keeps us motivated to keep doing our best.

Alright, so we got one thing to address down here: you guys may notice that when it comes to the 'investigation' aspect to our story that we're going relatively light on details. First off, this is because we're not detectives and it's easier to gloss over things than get it wrong. Second, this is a noir narrative and they're always thin on the details. The genre has always been about the characters, not the science. If you're expecting C.S.I. Zootopia, you're probably in the wrong place, sorry. That being said, we'll keep things well within the realm of plausibility.

Anyway, thanks again!


	3. Chapter 3

The door to the cafe swung open with the tinkling of a bell as Nick and Judy walked in. The Daily Grind was Nick's favorite coffee haunt and the most common source of his morning brew. Judy had been here a few times with him on the weekend, but this was the first time she'd ever seen it on a workday. Customers waited impatiently in an impressively long line as the the baristas scrambled to fill their orders in the morning rush.

Judy grimaced at the line. "Have I thanked you lately for bringing me tea every morning?"

"Don't give yourself too much credit, Carrots," Nick smirked. "I'd come here for the coffee regardless. Besides, I'm usually here about thirty minutes earlier, it's not so bad then." Nick gestured for her to take seat at one of the tables. "Let's wait out the rush."

In no particular hurry to get to Nick's apartment, Judy didn't mind the wait. Hopping up into a chair, she looked over the breakfast menu. She didn't often have the chance to have a breakfast that wasn't snatched out of Clawhauser's donut box and her stomach rumbled at the thought of something not covered in rainbow sprinkles.

Judy peeked over the menu at Nick. "Think we got time for some breakfast? My treat?"

"Do I ever turn down food?" he answered and picked up a menu as well.

The two of them looked over the menu in silence, or as silent as it could be over the din of voices and orders being called out. As the place started to thin out, a goat waitress came by with their table to take their orders. Still undecided, Judy gestured for Nick to go first.

"I'll have… a stack of blueberry pancakes and a coffee," Nick said.

"Actually… that sounds pretty good. I'll take the same, sans coffee," Judy smiled up at the waitress. "Carrot juice, please." The waitress jotted down their order and walked off to see to another table.

"What? You're actually eat something that _isn't_ strictly healthy?" Nick brought a scandalized paw up to his chest. "I am shocked, shocked I say! However will you keep up your dainty bunny figure?"

"Easily," she flicked a sugar packet his way and it bumped off his chest and into his lap. "Unlike you, I don't spend all my free time sitting around."

Nick tisked as he picked up the sugar packet and dropped it back into the caddy. "First off, behave yourself in public or I won't take you nice places. Second, predator - natural metabolism, Fluff."

"Still not an excuse for being lazy," she said as she allowed her gaze to wander around the cafe, content to mammal-watch.

"Speaking of being lazy," Nick caught her attention. "I don't feel like driving through traffic every morning when we're working out of my living-room. So I'm thinkin': what if you stay over at my place?"

Judy considered it briefly before deciding against the idea. Nick's couch didn't hold any appeal, and he never kept anything other than condiments in his fridge. In fact, she'd never once seen him even use his kitchen for anything other than reheating day old take-out. Nick's home was the quintessential bachelor pad and it showed.

"I dunno, not sure I want to crash on your couch for however long this investigation is going to take," Judy frowned.

"Who said anything about you using the couch?" he said. "I've got a guest room I can fix up for you."

At that moment, their waitress arrived with the food, but Judy was too dumbfounded to thank her. "You have a _guest room?_ Since when?"

"Since always," he said. "What'd you think that extra door in the hall was for?"

"I thought it was a storage closet or something," Judy sniffed at her plate before topping off her pancakes with syrup.

"No, that would be your 'efficiency,'" he air quoted. After a few bites, he added, "The only thing effient about your place is the walk to the door. When are you gonna move outta that shoebox and get yourself a real place? I _know_ you can afford it 'cause you make more than I do."

Judy hadn't really given the idea much thought. Her place was - admittedly - pretty crappy, but it didn't bother her. She hardly spent any of her free time at home other than sleeping, and how big did your place have to be for that? On the other paw, it would be nice to have her own kitchen… and a bathroom for that matter. Sharing the communal bathroom with her neighbors had lead to more awkward moments than she cared to admit.

"It has its charms," she shrugged. "It's easy to clean and the location is good. I mean, I don't need much else. It's more space than I had growing up. Besides, it encourages me to get out from time to time."

"Which you can _still_ do from my guest room," he said between mouthfuls. "So, how 'bout it?"

"Allllright, but on one condition," she kept him in suspense as she chewed. "While I'm there, we're actually going to _use_ your kitchen. I'm not eating take-out every night."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Fine. We can go grocery shopping tonight after we pick up your stuff. Remember to grab some chocolate for all the s'mores we're gonna make at our slumber party."

"Mmm. Can't wait to talk about boys all night," she countered smugly.

The sounds of Nick's choking were drowned out by Judy's peals of laughter.

* * *

Nick's favored green shirt camouflaged itself against the wallpaper pattern of the hallway as he opened the door to the guest room and gestured dramatically. "Behold. The fabled _not-a-closet_ guest room!"

Judy looked dubiously into the musty interior. A scattering of dust floated through the air, likely disturbed by the sudden sweep of the door. Battered cardboard boxes were stacked haphazardly against the far wall. A twin sized bed was hidden beneath an assortment of rolled up throw rugs and old sheets. A bicycle that had seen better days leaned beneath the windowsill, both tires flat. A rusty tricycle sat next to a chest of kids toys, a twisted slinky hanging out the side.

"Are you _sure_ this isn't a storage closet?" Judy said as she carefully stepped over the threshold, afraid of knocking anything over.

"Well, it's all I've been using it for," Nick admitted. "We _might_ have to clean up a bit."

"You think?" Judy snorted, and regretted it immediately as the action caught a breathful of dust into her nose. After a short fit of sneezing, she added, "Ugh, we got a lot to work to do if you're expecting me to sleep here."

"D'aww, bunny sneezes are _so cute,_ " Nick's mock-falsetto filled the room. "Alright, try not to breathe, I'm gonna get us some garbage bags and rags."

Judy glanced around the room, wondering where to start. "Is there anything in these boxes you don't want me to see?" she called.

"Gimme some credit, I got rid of anything incriminating a _long_ time ago," he hollered back. He joined her shortly after and tossed a garbage bag her way. "Just chuck whatever you find. I've been meaning to clean this place out forever."

Judy nodded and decided to get to work on the kids toys. Most were old and broken beyond repair and she shook out her bag before tossing them in. Nick sure had a lot of kids toys. Did he have a kid somewhere he never told her about? "Wow, how hardcore were you and Finnick about that whole father/son act?"

"Never let Finnick hear you say that or even I won't be able to find your body," Nick laughed as he carried some of the boxes out into the hallway. "No, those were my old toys."

Judy didn't figure Nick for the sentimental type. "How long have you _lived_ here?"

"All my life, don't be surprised to find a bassinet somewhere in all this," he replied.

Judy glanced over to find Nick cherry-picking through the boxes, occasionally tossing some things into his garbage bag. "So are your parents still in town or…?"

"Nah, my mom's dead and my dad walked out years ago," he said casually.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, feeling like an idiot. Now she knew why Nick had never brought them up before. She always just assumed he was estranged with his parents considering his past career choice. "So… how long?"

"My dad left before I was old enough to remember him, so nothing lost there," he reached under the bed and slid out an old rounded mirror. He smiled at it almost wistfully as he dusted it off with his arm before gently setting it aside. "My mom died when I was seventeen. Cancer," he added to her unspoken question.

"That must've been hard," Judy said quietly as she emptied out the toy chest. It wasn't half bad. With a little paint, it could possibly be used again as storage. Tieing off her garbage bag, she lugged it out into the hallway. "So how did you get to keep this place if you were still a kid?"

"Bit of a story to that," he paused briefly as he lugged the carpet off the bed and Judy had to duck out of his way as he drug it out of the bedroom. "I was fourteen when I found out. She might have had it for longer, but if she did, she hid it well. I just started highschool and, well, this was _a bit_ heavy. My mom barely made enough to keep us afloat and money was always tight. But when she started getting sicker, she couldn't work the same hours she used to. We needed money and I had school, so that didn't exactly leave me a lot of options."

"So, you dropped out and started hustling?" Judy supplied.

"Nah, more like my after school activities were less than legal," he said as he started to carefully walk the busted bike out of the room. "My mom wouldn't hear of me dropping out. She never asked where the money came from, and I never told her. I guess she didn't want me to lie to her. By the end, she was too sick to do much of anything really. The only reason we didn't get evicted was because the landlord had a soft spot for the two of us. After she died, the landlord cut me a break and let me stay on the cheap. I kept hustling and… you know the rest."

As she listened to Nick talk, Judy abandoned any pretense of cleaning up. The whole time he spoke, Nick continued to work as if he were simply sharing his thoughts about the weather. It wasn't like she'd expected him to start breaking down into a sobbing wreck, but it was still odd how nonchalant he was about the whole thing. She thought about asking whether or not he'd ever gotten in touch with his dad, but decided against it. She couldn't imagine the idea of not knowing her father, but if Nick wasn't talking about him, there was probably a good reason.

Shaking off her thoughts, Judy peeked into a box of old clothing to see if any of it was worth keeping. Most of it looked like a jumble of kids clothing, except for the neatly folded piece that stood out. The olive colored uniform reminded her of a story Nick had told her ages ago on a morning tram after saving her job. It was a lot more clean cut than anything he wore now, but she guessed that in the end, he got to wear a uniform after all.

Judy pulled out the uniform and lightly dusted it off. "Hey, I found your first uniform."

Nick glanced over his shoulder. "Ah yes, the badge of shame. You can toss it."

"I dunno, maybe you should keep it," Judy folded up the uniform and she slid the bundle his direction. "Your mother worked hard to get it for you, remember?"

"I guess so," he said softly before catching her eye with a crooked smile. "Besides, I'm pretty sure it's about your size. Think you can handle being a Junior Ranger Scout?"

"You're not getting me to wear that. Ever," she laughed before sobering again. "Y'know, I think your mom would be proud of how you turned out."

"Eh, I'm a work in progress," he shrugged, but she could tell that he was pleased nonetheless. "Anyway, let's finish _this_ work in progress so we can get to our actual job."

* * *

They decided to skip lunch in favor of finishing off Nick's guestroom, and by early afternoon, it looked reasonable enough that she could sleep in it without waking up as a dust bunny. The stuff Nick intended to keep had been tucked away into the closet, while the rest was dropped off at the dumpster outside. All in all, Judy welcomed the change of routine since she wasn't exactly enthusiastic about reading more hate mail.

She felt a little guilty spending a few hours not working on the case, but the simple fact of the matter was that they didn't have anything to go on yet. Nick had spent the last hour and a half making color commentary as he watched the security footage, and Judy was starting to wish she had given him the mail job instead. Sure, the tapes were boring, but reading so much unfounded hatred was enough to get to anyone.

"Hello Jogger Number Two, I'm glad to see you color coordinating your outfit with me today," said Nick in an effeminate trill. "Why of course, Jogger Number One. It's a Wednesday and _everyone_ knows you wear pink on Wednesday!" he responded shrilly.

Judy would've normally laughed, but she was too emotionally drained to bother. She sighed for the upteenth time as she sorted the letter into the 'read' pile and picked up another. Through this whole ordeal, she learned rather quickly that mammals weren't very imaginative with their insults. In fact, several of the letters she read today had the same doodle at the bottom of the page. Wondering if there was any significance to that, she picked through the pile and pulled out a total of five. Each one had a small drawing of two lions holding paws enveloped in a circle.

"You think they'll give us hazard pay due to the risk of death by boredom?" Nick quipped.

Judy waved the letters at him to get his attention. "Hey, have you seen this symbol before?"

He paused the video and slid across the couch. "Doesn't look like anything I've ever seen."

"These letters were all written by different mammals," Judy pointed out the script. "It's weird they'd all have that symbol in common."

"Take a picture and Zoogle it; see if anything comes up," Nick suggested.

"Good idea," she said as she whipped out her phone and snapped a picture. Uploading it to Zoogle, she searched through the results. At the top of the results page, she found herself looking at a copy of the hastily drawn image. "'The Naturalist Movement; keeping the world as nature intended.' Have you heard of this?"

Nick leaned closer for a better view of her screen. "Nope, click it."

Judy was way ahead of him. Despite what their symbol suggested, unity seemed to be the last thing the website described. In fact, the Naturalists movement appeared to be the direct contrast to the Beaumont's.

"'The Naturalist Movement is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of societal values based on what nature intended. Our mission is to bring awareness to the increasingly disturbing trend of Interspeciesism prevalent in today's society. Through peaceful protest and demonstration, our goal is to abolish this unnatural behavior and restore the harmony that our world was built on,'" Judy read aloud. She quickly scanned the rest of the page for any additional information. "They mention the Beaumont's Love is Blind campaign a few times. They call them 'the enemies of our cause.' Wow, that sounds _extreme._ "

"Yeah, extremely hypocritical," Nick snorted. "If they really wanted things to be as 'nature intended,' I'd be naked and picking my teeth with your bones right now."

"Ew, but good point," Judy wrinkled her nose as she scrolled down the page. "They certainly have motive to try and do something to the Beaumonts. I mean, they _are_ their direct opposition."

"Looks like they have the resources too," Nick pointed at the screen. "Look at all those meeting centers. I think we might want to pay them a visit."

"Yeah, but which one?"

"The biggest of course," Nick clicked on the locations tab and an overlay of the city appeared with marked locations. "Oh, I know that one," he prodded a spot downtown. "That used to be a rec center. That'd be big enough to hold a decent sized meeting."

"Alright, I guess we have something of a lead," Judy grinned. "I'll look up the next meeting they're having there and we'll have ourselves a little field trip."

"I'll take field work over re-watching this video any day," he said, relieved.

"Okay then, you keep watching while l fill in Bogo," Judy said and scrolled through her contacts for the Chief's number. Nick grumbled an inaudible complaint as he went back to watching his screen.

* * *

"Oh - there, on your left," Judy pointed past Nick's snout and he barely had time to merge into the turning lane. The two of them were on their way back from grabbing Judy's things at her apartment. In fact, packing for the indeterminate amount of time she might spend at Nick's house had meant nearly clearing out her apartment - not that she'd had much in it to begin with. With business taken care of, it was now time for the fun part: grocery shopping.

"'The Farmer's Market'?" Nick said with something of a smirk. "Feelin' homesick, are we?"

"Oh ha-ha," Judy scoffed as Nick circled the parking lot for a few moments. "Your kitchen is _bare_ and they have the best deals on produce. Now c'mon," she said hopping out her door once they parked. "If you're nice, I'll let you ride in the cart."

"Y'know I'm halfway tempted to take you up on that just to see you try," Nick locked the car behind them and followed her into the store.

After picking out the appropriately sized shopping cart, Judy had to remind herself to slow down to match Nick's pace. She quickly made a mental shopping list as she scanned the layout of the store, picking out the quickest route. Mammals of all sizes slowly shopped the aisles but the evening rush had long since come and gone.

"Anything you're hungry for?" Judy said just as they approached the produce section. "Besides blueberries, I mean."

Nick shrugged. "Hey, if you're cookin', I'm not picky."

Judy mused to herself that Nick would come to regret those words by the time she was through. She was glad that Nick was walking slightly behind her so he couldn't see her grin. Stopping at display of carrots, Judy picked through the bundles, already planning ways to slip them into Nick's meals.

"So be honest," Nick leaned against the side of the shopping cart. "How does the produce in a place like this compare to the stuff back home?"

"It doesn't," she said. "Obviously, things are a lot fresher back home, but it's more than that. You can shake the morning dew off your breakfast and still taste the earth, and that's something you just can't buy in stores. After all the hours of work you put into planting it, weeding it, and watching it grow, it just tastes... _better_."

"You sound pretty fond of farm life for how hard you worked to get away from it," Nick pointed out.

Judy shrugged as she picked out a few heads of lettuce. "There's nothing wrong with farm life, I just wanted something different."

"Lemme guess: it's the usual big fish in a small pond story," Nick picked out a nearby apple and shined it on his shirt. "Small-time farmer gets the dream to be a big city cop, everyone cheers, and she ends up the pride of her town. ' _You'll go far, kid,'_ they said as they tearfully waved her off at the station. And then she went on to become the most famous officer in the ZPD. Next up - _the world_."

"That would've been nice, but no," Judy laughed. " _Everyone_ tried talking me out of it from day one. My parents first response after I told them was a huge speech about the joys of 'settling' and how much happier it would make me. And mind you, this was to a _nine year old_."

"Harsh, usually parents don't give us the 'settling' talk until we're _at least_ in our twenties," he said. "Guess that explains your crazy drive to succeed."

"It's more than that, I think," she said as she checked the ripeness of some melons. "I knew what I was going to be and that's all there was to it. It didn't matter how hard it was. In a way, it's a lot like farming: all the work you put in just makes the end result that much sweeter."

Nick picked out a bag of grapes and placed them in the cart. "No regrets?"

Judy considered his question for a moment, surprised that he'd even ask. It wasn't a very 'Nick thing' to say. It was pointless, emotional, and she wondered what brought it on. "Not really," she said at last. "Sure, I miss my family, and I even miss the farm sometimes, but I'd still do it all the same. Besides, you'd still be a street hustler selling _popsicles_ of all things, so I'd say we've both made out pretty well."

"Hey - don't knock popsicles, everyone likes popsicles," Nick said as he trailed along behind her towards the bakery. "Still, can't argue with that logic."

The rest of their shopping trip proved uneventful. Judy was pleasantly surprised at how much Nick got into it, even going so far as to gleefully add a box of popsicles at the end when he thought she wasn't looking. Of course, she neglected to mention the boxes of crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows she'd hidden at the bottom of the cart. Judy had every intention of following through with Nick's joke from earlier - and _not_ sharing. By the time they finished their shopping, there was only a single register still open.

Glancing at the line, it didn't look like that bad of a wait considering the few mammals left shopping at this hour. Nick entertained himself with his phone while Judy scanned the nearby magazine rack. An issue of _Den and Garden_ brought her new room to mind and she plucked it out for a quick read.

"Hey, Nick," Judy said after flicking through a few pages for inspiration. "Later this week, let's pick out new curtains for the guestroom. The ones in there are looking a bit ratty."

"Just moved in and already trying to change the place," Nick sighed dramatically, but she could hear the smile beneath it.

Judy was just about to tease him for his lack of taste, when the sound of whispering met her ears. "A rabbit and a fox sharing a den? Wonder how _that_ ends," came the voice of a mammal further back in line. "You think they play 'chase the rabbit' before bed?" she added to the amused snicker of her companion.

Judy froze as her ears heated up with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. She glanced over to gauge Nick's reaction only to find him mindlessly pawing at his phone, but the flick of his ear told her enough. Judy turned around and felt the weight of Nick's paw fall on her shoulder, but she shrugged out of it. She looked up at the pair of camels behind her, the only other mammals in line.

"Is there a problem here?" _Please let there be a problem._ She'd like nothing better than to give them a piece of her mind.

"No, no problem at all," said one of the camels evenly and immediately dived into a conversation with her companion surrounding the rumors of Gazelle's latest boyfriend.

Judy stood there until her anger slowly gave way to humiliation as the two camels pointedly ignored her. She had wanted them to say something - _do anything_ \- as an excuse to use the badge on her hip and _show_ them how wrong they were about her and Nick. Instead, this was the most powerless she'd felt in her life since Gideon pinned her to the ground all those years ago.

Nick's paw on her shoulder slowly turned her around as he mumbled, "Hey, help me get these onto the belt."

In her rage, she'd almost forgotten that the line was moving forward. Judy's paws were shaking so hard that she nearly dropped the first few items. As the cashier rung them up, all she could think about was the camel's words and snickering laughter. Her mind played through the exchange over and over, thinking up different things she wanted to say to them until she was seething by the time Nick paid the bill. They wordlessly loaded their bags into the cart before Nick slowly pushed the cart out of the checkout aisle, seemingly indifferent to the whole exchange. Judy casted one last glance to the camels in line, expecting them to be whispering, pointing, laughing - _something_ \- but the two chatted on, blissfully unaware of her existence.

Outside in the parking lot, Judy stalked after Nick as he wheeled the cart out to his car. The two of them loaded up the groceries in silence and it wasn't until they stopped at an intersection did Judy break it. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Nick sighed. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, _I_ want to talk about it," Judy insisted. " _Why_ didn't you say anything?"

"What difference would it make?" Nick shrugged. "I turn around; we both call them out; they play dumb; and we're the ones left standing there looking like idiots."

"Oh, so _that's_ what I was doing?" Judy fumed. "I was under the impression that I was standing up for us, but apparently, I'm just an idiot."

Nick cut a glance her way. "That's _not_ what I'm saying -"

"That's _exactly_ what you said," Judy snapped back. "How could you just stand there and let those - those _assholes_ just say those things and get away with it? Doesn't it bother you?"

"Of course it bothers me," Nick growled as they pulled to a stop at a red light. "But right now, you're angry at _them_ and you're taking it out on _me_. So can we drop this?"

"No, I'm angry at _you too_ ," Judy said as she turned in her seat to face him. "Don't you get it? If we just accept things like that, then they're never going to change. I never let looking like an idiot stop me from doing what's right, and neither should you."

" _You. Can't. Win,_ " his fist slammed into the steering wheel hard enough to startle her. "Not at this. This isn't about what you're _capable_ of. It's about who you are, and once the world's mind is made up, there's _nothing_ you can do to change it. You can spend your entire life proving them wrong, but the most you'll ever get is 'well, you're not like the _rest of them._ ' Even then, you haven't _really_ changed anything. So yeah, I didn't say a thing because it was pointless. Those two made up their mind about us _long_ before we walked into that store."

"It's that kind of attitude that gets us nowhere," Judy rounded back, her own voice rising. "Being silent isn't going to change anyone's mind, and if there were more mammals like the Beaumonts spreading awareness, we could be the norm and _not_ the exception."

"The Beaumonts are rich, and famous, and successful," Nick scoffed. "They'll never never have to worry about losing their job, or getting evicted, or refused service. And if it _did_ happen to them, what do they care? They'll probably just buy the place and fire the guy who did it. The rest of us don't get off that easy: all we get to do is stand there and take it. What happened back there? Imagine dealing with it every day for the rest of your life and then tell me it's worth it."

A car honked behind them, signalling the greenlight that the two of them hadn't noticed. Nick gave the driver behind the finger, "Oh, _fuck off_ , we're talking here!"

"Not anymore," Judy sighed as she crossed her arms over her seatbelt and the car behind them slowly sputtered past. "Let's just go."

* * *

It was a strained affair as the two of them unloaded groceries back in Nick's kitchen. They'd made the rest of the drive back in silence, and not the comfortable kind that Judy was used to with her partner. In fact, there'd been too many awkward silences these past couple of days between them, and Judy had even considered whether she wanted to stay at his place anymore. Still, as she began to fill in his empty fridge, she figured it would be a waste not to at this point.

"Uh, hey," Nick said called out as if testing the waters for a response. "Look, if you uh… wanna use the shower or something, I can finish up with this."

"Sure," she said and made her way back over to the couch where she had tossed her dufflebag. Judy was usually more of a morning shower type, but she was grateful for any excuse to put some space between them.

She was just making her way down the hall when Nick's arms enveloped her from behind. Judy tensed for a moment before his sigh brushed the top of her head between her ears. "I'm sorry for uh... for getting a bit loud back there," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry I wouldn't let it go," she gave his arm a squeeze. They lingered like that for a moment, just breathing, until she pulled away and faced him.

"Friends?" he sheepishly offered a paw.

"Always," she confirmed. They shook on it and the rest of the walk to her bedroom felt a little bit lighter.

But once alone in the room, Judy was still left swimming in the thoughts of their earlier argument. Nick seemed on edge ever since they showed up at the Beaumont's mansion, and it didn't seem like it was the case itself that was affecting him. Instead, anytime the concept of interspecies relationships came up, he immediately became defensive. For the second time in a row, he'd questioned whether or not it was worth all the trouble.

Considering how much trouble she had to overcome to get where she was, Nick should've known how she'd answer. But after what happened at the checkout aisle, she wasn't so sure anymore. It wasn't a fight with a goal or some expectation to surpass, this was a fight against the very mammals surrounding her. It was about coming to terms with the fact that some of them were never going to change, and that you were never going to stop dealing with them. Nick was right: it wasn't the kind of fight you could ever truly 'win.'

It was a hard pill to swallow.

Thinking back on what Nick had said in the car, it was pretty clear that he hadn't just been talking about interspecies relationships. Is that what he'd spent his entire life struggling with? Judy took in the childish drawings on the surrounding walls and imagined him as a kid coming home late at night and stashing away his money for his sick mother. It saddened her to think that he had missed out on the best years of his life and grew up faster than any kid should have to. She couldn't help but pity the loss of his youth, even if she knew he wouldn't care for it.

Judy slumped onto the bed and unzipped her dufflebag. Shifting through her clothes, she picked out something to sleep in and changed for bed. Flicking off the lights and settling beneath the covers, she silently hoped that tomorrow would be easier…

… until she remembered their planned 'field trip.' She was starting to think that life had a sick sense of humor.

* * *

 **A/N:** Sorry for the wait, but it comes with the territory of juggling two stories at once. We're actually writing constantly, it's just that half of our time goes elsewhere. We'll try to keep our updates consistent at twice a month, unless we get overwhelmed or life gets in the way.

So about Nick's backstory, we can be pretty sure that Nick's 'two hundred dollars a day hustling since he was twelve' thing was a total exaggeration. This would make him a millionaire, and Nick definitely wasn't living like one in the movie. So, yeah, we filled in the blanks on his backstory a bit. Also, bunny sneezes are cute as hell. Do yourself a favor: look it up and make it your ringtone. You can thank us later.

Anyway, thanks for the support and we're glad so many of you are enjoying our story.


	4. Chapter 4

Nick had forgotten just how spunky Judy could be in the morning. He'd awoken bleary-eyed to the smell of coffee and dragged himself out of bed like a mammal possessed in search of his morning fix. Half asleep, he had bumped into Judy no less than three times as she fussed around the kitchen, making breakfast and humming to herself. Of course, she was already dressed and showered judging by her scent and, as she guided him to his seat at the table, he was oh-so-casually informed that she'd already gone jogging this morning and that maybe he'd like to join her tomorrow. _It gets the blood flowing_ , she cheerfully pointed out.

 _Bunnies._

He dialed back his resentment - _a bit_ \- as he dug into the fruit and oatmeal she'd prepared for them. For someone that lived almost entirely on microwaved dinners and takeout, Judy was a surprisingly good cook. It almost made him wish that he'd invited her to stay over sooner. On the other paw, that would mean having to deal with her morning energy every day. Nick didn't think his constitution could handle that.

"Sleep well?" Judy looked up from across his small kitchen table. Nick was only able to grunt a reply, but she seemed to get the gist of it.

"Should be plenty of hot water if you want to take a shower."

Another grunt.

"Sooo… enjoying _real_ food for a change?" she continued to pop off questions between bites, and Nick vaguely wondered how she managed do that without choking. Clearly, she wasn't going to give up until he responded.

"Yes, and my arteries are _ever so grateful,_ " Nick said at last.

This seemed to satisfy her because there were no more questions for the remainder of their meal. Not that he minded; Nick was used to eating in silence. In fact, everything about her presence felt off. He hadn't shared an apartment with someone since his mom died and having another mammal around threw off his routine. By now, he should've been on his way to pick up their morning drinks on the way to work. It was strange sitting here eating breakfast; even stranger one he hadn't picked up from across the street. Polishing off his meal, Nick dropped his dishes off at the sink before making the trek to the bathroom.

Opening the door, Nick found himself swimming in a field of flowers and Judy. _This_ was also painfully new and disturbing. Gone was the familiar smell of his usual body wash and deodorant, overpowered by something unmistakably feminine. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. It wasn't… unpleasant, but it definitely wasn't the norm. The carrot shaped towel hanging neatly next to his made it all too surreal. One glance around the room and he noted the half-dozen new items that adorned the countertops with a sigh. Judy really _had_ moved in.

So why did his chest suddenly feel so tight?

* * *

Nick drummed his paws on the steering wheel and tried not to check the clock in his dashboard for the umpteenth time. Some truck had stalled out on the byway and he'd been forced to take a detour through the heavy traffic of downtown. They were over half an hour late for the Naturalist meeting according to the schedule on their website and he didn't fancy barging in mid-meeting. The last thing they wanted to do was draw attention to themselves.

"Apparently, the guy that runs this center is a mammal by the name of Daniel McIntyre," Judy said. "He's probably the one we'll want to talk to."

"Sounds easy enough."

He cut a glance at Judy to find her casually scrolling through her phone. If she was still hung up on their argument, she didn't show it. After their encounter at the Farmer's Market, he wasn't entirely sure that Judy was up for the sustained level of hate they were about to walk into. She wasn't one to allow injustice to go unchallenged and he'd gotten a full blast of it for himself. Then again, she'd spent her entire life fighting for things while he'd spent most of his avoiding confrontation. Last night had been the first time he could ever remember them arguing and having her anger directed at him wasn't something he wanted to repeat.

Which didn't make what he was about to do any easier. Pulling into the parking lot, Nick locked the doors before Judy had the chance to hop out. Bracing himself, he unbuckled his seatbelt and watched her wiggle the door handle.

"What gives?" she looked at him quizzically.

"I just thought we should have a game plan," he began carefully.

"Sure, fire away."

 _Here goes nothing._ "Sooo when we're in there, we're going to do… nothing."

Judy's nose twitched in confusion. "That's a terrible plan."

"What I mean is, we're here to _observe_ ," he elaborated, pinching the bridge of his muzzle.

"Do you think that's a _problem?_ " she said just as carefully and Nick knew he was treading on thin ice.

"What I think... is that you're very passionate when it comes to fighting for what you believe in," he said and cut off her reply with a hastily added, "Not that it's a bad thing! Just not something we need right now."

"I'm perfectly capable of being professional, Nick. I'm not about to get us thrown out," Judy sighed before wiggling the door handle once more. "Are we good?"

"I know, Judy," he said and unlocked the doors. "I'll just be _a lot_ better once this is over."

Without another word, the two of them made their way through the revolving doors of the rec center. As they entered the hallway, they could hear a voice carrying distantly over the PA.

"...and it's important to recognize that the needs of society must invariably trump the needs of the individual. I'm sure any predator in the audience knows what I'm talking about." The voice paused over the sound of polite laughter as Nick and Judy followed it through the open doors of the auditorium.

The room opened up into a basketball court where several dozen mammals sat quietly in the bleachers. On the court, a lone podium faced away from the doors, a hedgehog standing atop a tall stool behind it. A fair amount of heads turned from the audience at their entrance and Nick inwardly sighed. So much for low key.

The hedgehog turned around and pulled up his glasses. "I see we have newcomers - don't be shy. Come in and have a seat."

Nick gave an awkward wave as the two of them crossed the gym to take their seats on the bottom row of bleachers. As he settled in, he couldn't help but notice the mix of the audience around them. _Ah, yes. Equal opportunity hate._ Pulling his glasses back down, the hedgehog coughed lightly before continuing his speech.

"We should embrace the diversity that society offers us, but at the same time, we must acknowledge that making allowances should not place an undue burden upon the majority. Former Mayor Lionheart had his slogan that in Zootopia that 'anyone can be anything.' Of course, we all know this to be a half-truth." Nick felt Judy shift uncomfortably in her beside him, but made no comment.

"The fact is: we _are_ different. Each of our species has different capabilities and attributes that allow us to succeed. Our society can only succeed once it stops trying to force everyone into the same mold. We of the Naturalist Movement aren't trying to conform everyone to a single ideal. Instead, we're trying to bring all our differences together as nature made us. And isn't that what Zootopia _should_ be about?" The crowd clapped in agreement, broken here and there with cheers. After a few moments, the hedgehog waved them down and added, "Thank you, our next meeting is scheduled on Thursday at three o'clock, I hope to see you all there."

The bleachers slowly began to empty around them and Nick let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. All things considered, that hadn't been so bad. Of course they'd missed most of it, but the parts they'd caught had been surprisingly level-headed.

"Not what I expected," Judy said at his shoulder over the murmur of the crowd.

"Yeah, that was… weird," Nick agreed.

"You think that's our guy?" Judy nodded toward the hedgehog that was saying goodbye to passing mammals.

"Only one way to find out."

They waited for a couple of minutes until the crowd dispersed before making their way over to where the hedgehog was busy tidying up the podium. "Hi, is there any chance you could tell us where we might find Daniel McIntyre?" Judy asked.

The hedgehog pulled up his glasses and gave them a once over. "You're in luck," he held out his paw. "That would be me."

Judy shook his paw. "Could we have a moment of your time?"

"Of course," Daniel nodded pleasantly. "If you don't mind: my office is right down the hall."

Judy cut Nick a glance and he nodded in agreement. The two of them followed the hedgehog out of the auditorium and into the hallway. Passing bulletin boards advertising yoga classes and bikes for sale, Nick was struck with how blasé everything was. They reached a door covered in a poster emblazoned with the cheery yellow twin lions of the Naturalist's insignia. Daniel waved them inside a small office that must have doubled as a storage closet at one point. Taking a seat at his desk, he waited for them to seat themselves on an overlarge chair before clearing his throat.

"So, what can I do for you, Officers?"

"Don't remember us saying anything about being cops," Nick said, slightly annoyed at how fast Daniel had made them.

"You don't have to, Officer Wilde," Daniel said. "You made a poor job of hiding it, and besides, I'd recognize you and Officer Hopps regardless. The newspapers couldn't get enough of you two after the Night Howlers case."

Well, there was a reason why Bogo never put them on undercover work. "Great, now that we've got the formalities out of the way, maybe you can help us."

"And how is that?"

"We're looking into the disappearance of Arthur Beaumont," Judy began as she pulled out her notepad and carrot-pen. "He was kidnapped from his home three days ago and we have reason to believe that some of your supporters might be involved."

"I haven't seen anything about this mentioned in the news," Daniel said. "You would think that the kidnapping of one of the city's most prominent citizens would be a little more newsworthy."

"For the time being, we're keeping it below the radar for the victim's safety," Judy explained.

"And the public backlash, no doubt," Daniel leveled at them.

"So, you're aware of the media backlash this could cause," Nick baited, knowing that Judy would be recording this whole conversation.

"I'm aware that _any_ high-profile kidnapping will make waves in this city," Daniel coolly replied. "And you don't get more high-profile than the Beaumonts."

Judy cut Nick a glance over her notepad and he had to bite back his own frustration at Daniel's words. This guy was a little too good at speaking without saying anything. "What an elegant non-answer," Nick said impatiently.

"This is hardly my first time in the ring, Officers," Daniel crossed his paws over the desk. "Anytime there's crime against interspecies couples, where do you think the cops come looking first? The fact that we're a peaceful movement seems to be lost on them."

"Your supporters make it very easy to point fingers," Judy said as she pulled a bundle of envelopes out of her jacket and slid them across the desk.

The room lapsed into silence for a few minutes as he pored over the contents of the letters. He slowly pulled his glasses off his face and dropped the papers back onto the table. "How disappointing."

"A mammal is missing, possibly dead, and all you can say is 'how disappointing'?" Judy scoffed.

"Yes, it's _disappointing_ ," Daniel ground out, and Nick could see the flash of anger behind his eyes. "It's disappointing that the mammals who wrote these letters couldn't be further away from our ideals even if they tried. It's disappointing that mammals like this are responsible for giving our entire movement a bad reputation. And I find it _incredibly disappointing_ that one of individuals I respect most in this city could be dead because of extremists like these. What more do you expect me to say?"

"But is it _really_ so disappointing that one of the leaders of the Naturalists' ' _enemies_ ' disappears?" Judy accused.

Nick glanced over, wondering if he'd have to restrain her, only to find her idly flipping her pen in her paw beneath the table. _Clever bunny._ She was clearly trying to rile him up, and it was working… or not.

Daniel slumped tiredly back into his seat with a sigh. "You know, contrary to the narrative the media chooses to portray, the Naturalist Movement and the Love is Blind campaign aren't bitter rivals locked in some titanic ideological struggle. I don't hate the Beaumonts - or even their views - I simply disagree with them. Not all battles are fought with violence."

"This one definitely was," Nick pointed out. "Look, you seem like a pretty reasonable guy, so I'm sure you can get how bad it would look if members of your movement were implicated in Arthur Beaumont's disappearance. If you can help us out by giving us a list of members, we'll be sure to mention that when all this is over."

"Of course, whatever we can do to help," Daniel agreed. "If you could give me a moment, I'll put the list on a flash drive for you."

Nick picked at his claws as they waited for Daniel to finish copying the files for them. They hadn't gotten much out of Daniel, but the list would more than make up for it. After a few moments, he placed it on top of the pile of letters and slid them across the desk.

"I wish you luck in your investigation, Officers," Daniel intoned as Judy pocketed the items. "I _do_ hope that you find Arthur safe."

"So do we," Nick agreed.

The two of them hopped off the chair and were nearly out the door when Judy turned back and said casually, "By the way, we were a little late and I might have missed this part, but why does the Naturalist Movement oppose interspecies relationships?" To anyone else, the question seemed innocent enough, but Nick knew better.

 _Ugh, and she was doing so well._

"Well, it's simple enough really," Daniel began. "The Naturalist Movement is about celebrating the differences and diverse cultures that nature has gifted our different species'. Interspecies relationships would only lead to its decline. We don't believe that the happiness of a few individuals makes up for the loss to society as a whole. It's just not worth it."

Nick internally winced as he looked over to gauge Judy's reaction at the same words he had thrown in her face just last night, but her expression remained unreadable. For a moment, he was tempted to correct Daniel and explain just how _stupid_ his thinking was. 'Not being worth it' wasn't why you stopped everyone else from doing it. It was how you justified not doing it personally. Nick was pretty sure his lack of conviction had never hurt anyone.

But the moment passed as Judy simply nodded and said, "Thank you for your time."

 _That's it?_ Nick stared after her before he followed her out into the hall. Where was the fiery indignant Judy when he needed her? It unnerved him to hear his words used in the defense of something so… _idiotic._ He half expected Judy to turn around as soon as they left the building and start expounding, but she continued across the parking lot as if nothing had happened. Why did she choose _today_ to be the stoic professional? And whose stupid idea was that pep-talk anyway?

Nick's internal rant was cut short as he spotted an all too-familiar van parked a few cars away from them. A happy beaver pushing a lawn-mower was decaled on the side along with the words 'Larry's Landscaping.' It was a hard thing to forget given that he'd seen it at least two dozen times on video in the last couple days.

Judy was just about to hop into his car before he called out to her. "Hey, Carrots, check it out."

"What am I looking at here?" she turned and scanned the parking lot.

"One of these things is not like the others," he hummed and pointed out the van. "I've seen this van all over the Beaumont's security tapes. Unless 'Larry' owns a whole fleet of these, how much you wanna bet he's in that building right now?"

"That would be… convenient," Judy said before hopping up onto the trunk of his car. "I say we wait him out."

Nick settled against the side of his car in a considerably better mood. They were going to find this Larry guy, he was going to confess, they were going to find Arthur, and they'd close this case. No more awkward conversations between him and Judy, and she could move back to her place… or maybe she could stay at his. He wasn't exactly opposed to the idea. Her disgusting amount of morning energy aside, they already spent most of their time together outside of work - and he could get used to homemade breakfasts. She probably wouldn't turn him down. After all, it could only be an upgrade from that shoe box she called an apartment.

Nick's daydreams were in interrupted by an elbow nudging his side. "Hey, I think that's our beaver," Judy nodded across the parking lot towards a beaver exiting the building.

"And look at that fashionable shirt he's wearing," Nick pointed out. Sure enough, the yellow twin lions of the Naturalist Movement were stretched taught across the beaver's belly. "Feel like playing a bit of Good Bunny, Bad Fox?"

Judy grinned. "Oh, I like it when we play that game. Do I get to play the 'Bad Fox' this time?"

"Har-har, smart-ass," he said as she fell into step at his side. The two of them headed off Larry and Nick wrapped a friendly arm around the surprised beaver's shoulders before flashing his badge. "Well, if it isn't my buddy Larry. How 'bout we have a little chat, huh?"

"Uh, o-okay. What do you want to chat about?" Larry said, his eyes darting between the two of them.

"Let's go somewhere a little more private," Nick said amicably. "Keys?"

Larry held out his keys in a daze and Judy snatched them up. "Don't worry, we just want to talk."

As Judy unlocked the back of the van, Nick nudged him through the door. "Up you get, let's not make a scene."

Larry clambered inside and sat down amongst the gardening tools in utter bewilderment as Nick and Judy filed in and shut the door. Judy overturned a pot and made herself comfortable on it before glancing around. "Nice and cozy in here, huh?"

Nick hummed his agreement and opted to stand. "Yeah, roomier than it looks from the outside."

"Can I-I help you, Officers?" Larry prompted.

"Yes. Yes you can," Nick began. "This wouldn't happen to be the same van I've seen parked outside the Beaumont's estate every couple of days, is it?"

"Yeah, I work for the Beaumonts," Larry confirmed. "I landscape for several families in that area."

"That's good, 'cause I was getting _really_ tired of watching that security footage," Nick drawled.

"Oh, well y'know, I uh… L-Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Larry stammered out. "I d-didn't think it was that big a deal."

"Not that 'big a deal'?" Nick couldn't even believe his ears. This guy cracked _really_ quick. He might have to ask Judy to move in before lunch time. "Judy, I think that's the fastest confession we've ever got."

"Yeah, even Bellwether took longer than that," Judy agreed.

"Alright, back to you, Larry," Nick carried on. "How did you think that this would be anything other than 'a big deal'? Why did you do it? Did your Naturalist buddies put you up to this?"

"Y-you can't prove I'm a Naturalist," Larry backpedaled.

"Oh, and I suppose you tripped and _fell_ into that shirt you're wearing," Nick sniped.

"If you can just tell us everything you know, we could make this easier for you," Judy soothed. She was telling the truth - _technically._

"Listen to my partner," Nick reasoned. "You don't strike me as the brains behind this plan. If you tell us who put you up to it, then we can cut you a deal." No, no they wouldn't.

"There was no 'we'. It was just - just me!" Larry insisted. "I didn't think it was gonna hurt anyone, I just - I can pay for it!"

 _Wait, 'hurt anyone'? 'Pay for it'?_ Something wasn't adding up. Nick and Judy shared a confused look before she shrugged. "Larry, what did you _do?_ " she said with a mother-like concern Nick imagined she had perfected over many years of babysitting her siblings.

"Okay look, it just started with the - w-with a few letters and then I-" Larry suddenly burst into tears and Nick restrained himself from rolling his eyes. _Oh great, a weeper._ If he had dollar for every time a criminal had broken down after getting caught, he'd have - well, a lot of dollars. "Then I started d-doing the graffiti and…"

" _And_ …?" Nick encouraged.

"A-and you can't tell them! Please, I _really_ need this job!" Larry wailed.

The van was silent except the hiccuping sniffles of the beaver before them and Nick could've carved his paw into his forehead. He could vaguely hear Judy clear her throat beside him and he didn't dare look at her and risk losing his composure.

"You better not be lying to me, Larry. Is that _all_ you did?"

"Yes, I swear!" Larry sobbed into his paws. "That's all I did, I swear!"

Nick deflated with a sigh. "Y'know, I should report this, but I don't feel like filing the paperwork, so I'll let you go with a warning this time. But I don't want to hear any more complaints from the Beaumonts or I'll come looking for you, understand?"

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! I promise I won't do it again," Larry continued to blubber as Nick beckoned at Judy for a quick exit.

"Here, you'll need these," Judy handed off the keys to Larry before following Nick back out into the parking lot.

The walk back to the car was made in complete silence. "Well, that was a waste," Nick observed as he buckled in. Judy's body began to shake as her barely contained laughter finally broke free. Nick tried to keep a straight face for about half a second before he gave up and joined her.

"D-did you s-see his face!?" Judy burst out between breaths.

"Tell me about it, I thought he was gonna start crying into my pant leg!" Nick had to wipe away the tears from his eyes as he struggled to get his keys into the ignition.

"Well, at least we solved _one_ mystery today," she said, and their peals of laughter followed them out of the parking lot and into the afternoon traffic.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey, we're back again with another chapter. Don't really have much to say this time, sooo hope you enjoyed. Thanks for the support so far, and hope to catch ya next time.


	5. Chapter 5

"Next up, Ethan Bosey," Judy named off and looked down at Nick expectantly.

The two of them once again found themselves in Nick's living room as they worked their way down the list that Daniel had given them, a list _several thousand_ names long. It sat on Judy's lap at least two dozen pages thick, and they were only on page three. Nick sat on the ground with his back to the couch, the laptop on the coffee table in front of him as he typed in names. From her perch above, Judy was just able to make out the details as Nick ran background checks on their perspective kidnappers.

"Looks like Bosey used to be a busy boy," Nick murmured as he scrolled down the arrest records of a particularly burly looking zebra. "Two aggravated assaults and one armed robbery charge - he did a little time for the latter."

"Oh, that sounds promising," Judy said as she circled the name.

"Wait - that was from ten years ago," Nick added. "Looks like he's been clean ever since he got out."

With a sigh, Judy crossed out the name. Their system was hardly foolproof, but with thousands of names to go through, it was the best they could hope for. For all they knew, the mammals involved with Arthur's disappearance had no criminal records to speak of. Still, with one computer between them and nothing else to go on, it was the best they could do. Daniel had been… surprisingly cooperative when he gave them this list. Judy wasn't about to let his generosity go to waste, even if it was self-serving.

"Sara Bushtail," Judy listed off and glanced up just in time to see the driver's licence photo of an arctic fox.

Nick shook his head, "Nothing relevant - just a couple of parking tickets. One given by _you_ , actually."

With another name crossed off, Judy only half-listened as they continued working down the list. Her thoughts drifted back to their conversation with Daniel earlier that day. The entire exchange had been unsettling. Instead of the fanatical prejudice she'd been expecting, he had been perfectly reasonable, far too reasonable for her liking. She had walked in there prepared for the worst, only to be amazed at how benign everything had been. Nothing about them had exactly screamed 'incoming hate stampede'. If she hadn't known anything about the meeting going in, she would've assumed it was some sort of pep-rally.

It had been unnerving to realize that she had been just as ready to despise these mammals for their beliefs as others were ready to despise the Beaumonts for theirs. Of course, it didn't exactly give the Naturalists the moral high ground. For all of Daniel's fancy words and mild-mannered approach, he was still wrong. But she had stayed silent and _observed_ , just like Nick wanted. _Actually…_

"Hey Nick," she tapped her foot on his shoulder. "Can we talk for just a sec?"

Nick turned around to face her, "Sure, what's up?"

"Look, I didn't want to make a fuss before we went into the meeting, but I didn't appreciate that little chat we had this morning," Judy began bluntly. "Are you really worried about my professionalism?"

Nick pawed through his fur with a sigh. "C'mon, Judy. I -"

"What I mean is: we've worked together for seven months now, and you've never brought it up before. I need to know if you can trust in my judgement."

"Forget what I said this morning, it was stupid," Nick waved away. "I don't question your judgement. You're the most driven mammal I know. I just worry sometimes that you get too close to the case."

"Oh, _I_ get too close? I wasn't the one that walked out of that meeting looking like I wanted to maul the guy," Judy snipped. Judging by the way Nick's hackles had risen, he hadn't exactly liked hearing what Daniel had to say either. "Are you going to tell me _that_ was professional? I'm not the only one too close to this."

"You're right," Nick's shoulders slumped as he leaned back against the coffee table. "I _am_ too close to this case. We both are. This entire thing hits a little closer to home than I'd like, and I don't want us getting burned."

"I get that, but I'm not some kind of a 'loose canon' here," Judy said softly. It was hard to stay angry at him for wanting to protect them, but he needed a reminder that she could take care of herself. "Remember, you're not the only one that had it rough."

"No need to make it a competition," he laughed to himself. "Sometimes it's easy to forget you're one tough bunny behind all the cuteness."

Judy gave a mock-exasperated roll of her eyes, but didn't bother to correct his use of the word 'cute.' She'd stopped caring ages ago. "And now onto something less depressing… I think we need s'mores."

"Drowning your sorrows in calories, I see," Nick tisked as Judy set aside her notes and lept up from the couch.

Judy ignored his quip for the most part until she made her way into the kitchen and glanced around the cabinets. "Where did you put the s'mores stuff?" she called.

"Top left cabinet over the oven," Nick shouted. "Be sure to use the stool, those cabinets stick."

Judy eyed the stool and internally scoffed. Instead, she made a running bound onto the oven. Landing lightly, she leapt up once more and caught the handle. Toes just brushing the stove top, she pulled at the cabinet door and found it unsurprisingly stuck.

"I don't hear the sound of a stool in there," Nick called from the living room.

"I got it," Judy called over her shoulder.

Still hanging onto the handle, she swung her hips out and braced her feet against the wall. Pushing herself off slightly, the cabinet door remained firmly shut. _Does Nick glue these things shut?_ Preparing her feet against the wall once more, she pushed off again, hard. With a labored thunk, the door suddenly popped open and Judy was flung into space as the handle was wrenched from her precarious grasp. She readied herself for a hard fall, only to collide with something much softer.

Nick grunted under the weight and stumbled back a couple of steps. "Well, well, what do we have here? One flying bunny, and no stool in sight," Nick said with a grin that was positively shit-eating.

"My hero. You can put me down now," Judy huffed and squirmed in his arms. Instead, Nick tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Judy was treated to the sight of his tail as it flicked in amusement. "Put me down!"

"Not yet," he insisted as the kitchen turned around her. She could at any moment slip free, and he knew it. "Not until I teach you the proper cabinet opening technique," he said as he drug the stool into place. "First, we _place_ the stool."

Judy gave a groan of frustration before giving in and going limp over his shoulder. "I dunno, should we anchor it for safety?"

"I'm sure we'll be fine," Nick serenely climbed the stool and needlessly added, "Second, we _climb_ the stool."

"Wow, you make it look _so_ easy," Judy hummed in mock admiration.

"Oh, it's nothing. You'll master it in no time," he said humbly. Reaching the top, he closed the cabinet door she had opened before pulling it open again. Annoyingly enough, he really did make it look easy. "And finally, we _open_ the door," Nick singsonged.

His shoulders shifted beneath her as he grabbed the ingredients, and Judy swooned enthusiastically, " _Oh, you're such a conqueror!_ You sure showed that inanimate object who's boss."

"I try," Nick's tone lost none of its joviality as he stepped back onto the kitchen floor.

"Okay, lesson over," Judy kicked lightly to get his attention. "Gonna put me down now?"

"I don't know, are you suuure you're ready to have your ground privileges back yet?"

"That depends: are you looking to get a foot in your face?" Judy said just as cheerfully.

"That sounds much less pleasant than bunny-tail," he observed nonchalantly.

"NICK!" Judy felt herself blush to the tips of her ears before wiggling out of his grasp and landing on the ground. She turned to scold him, only the find him laughing his tail off, barely managing to hold the ingredients in his arms.

"C'mon, can't blame me for noticing," he laughed. "I mean - _seriously_ \- what are bunny tails even for?"

"It's - they're for distracting predators!" Judy tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the heat in her ears to die down. At least Nick was laughing too hard to notice.

"Huh. Guess it works," he said as he wiped a tear from his eye. " _It's just so pert and fluffy,_ " he added before bursting out in another round of laughter.

"I should punch you," Judy finally laughed.

"Yeah, but then I'd drop the ingredients," he said with an abrupt seriousness that Judy couldn't help but find comical. She couldn't argue with that logic.

Judy hopped up onto the kitchen countertop and waved dramatically towards the microwave, "Well then, _oh Master of Menial Tasks_ , I leave making the s'mores in your capable paws."

Nick rolled up the sleeves he didn't have, and grinned. "I live to serve."

Judy handed off the ingredients and watched as Nick stacked them into s'mores, whistling tunelessly. Something about Nick was… different this evening. He seemed awfully cheerful all things considered, even playful. And Nick was _never_ playful. Sure, they'd bantered constantly and he had a seemingly endless supply of quips, but never quite like this. Nick broke off a pip of chocolate and offered her the bar. Snapping off a piece, Judy let it melt on her tongue as she wondered what to make of him.

Was Nick being… _flirty?_ Judy almost choked as the sudden realization nearly had her cracking up. The idea was just so... _ridiculous._ But on the other paw, he had mentioned her tail. Pert and fluffy, huh? Was that where the nickname 'Fluff' came from? _Wait - how often does he think about my tail?_ Judy vaguely recalled Nick's strange fixation with Bellwether's wool and wondered if it was just a fox thing.

The ding of the microwave startled Judy out of the strange turn her thoughts, and Nick pulled out the plate of s'mores. "Voilà," he waved the plate under her nose. "Now back to the couch."

Judy lead the way into the living room and slumped back into her seat. Picking a bulging sweet off the plate Nick set down between them, she tried not to let the sticky marshmallow get on her fur. "It's not quite the same," Judy observed after a few bites.

"Hmm?" Nick looked over from where he was pecking away at the keyboard with one paw.

"Microwaving s'mores," she elaborated. "They're all just soft and gooey when you microwave them. It's nothing like when you toast them over a fire."

"I dunno, they taste pretty good to me," he said thickly through a bite of marshmallow. "Then again, I've never done the whole camping thing."

"You've been missing out," Judy snatched up another s'more. "We'll have to correct that."

"Can't wait," he said with no small measure of sarcasm. "We'll sit around the campfire and play Truth or Dare and talk about boys…"

"That would be a slumber party," Judy corrected. "Camping's way better; more ghost stories, less boy-talk."

And thank goodness for that. Judy never really went through the boy-crazy phase. While all of her friends were busy gushing over their latest crush, Judy already knew exactly what she wanted, and it didn't involve boys - at least not directly. She had a couple of boyfriends growing up - at least for the week or two they lasted. In hindsight, she _may_ have come on a little strong.

In fact, she didn't get involved in a real relationship until her freshman year of college. They spent over a year together and it may have turned into something more if it wasn't for the fact that they were moving in different directions. Things ended on good terms between them and they still talked to each other a while afterward. Last she heard, Jim got married and had a litter of his own now. It looked like they both had gotten what they wanted.

And that was the thing: her plans for the future never involved dating. It was always one of those far-off nebulous things that she'd get around to eventually. Of course, she was starting to get to that eventuality and was still no closer to finding Mr. Right - much to the chagrin of her parents. At the end of the day, her job didn't exactly leave her a lot of options, unless you were into criminals. It's like Nick said: she only had room for one partner in her life.

Judy looked over the partner in question only to find him sheepishly scraping a dollop of marshmallow off the keyboard and hid her laugh behind a paw. Nick really _was_ a good partner. He was sarcastic and a bit of a jerk to strangers - which meant most everyone - but behind his devil-may-care attitude was someone she genuinely cared about. Sure, he sassed her constantly, but at this point it was practically a game between them and that sly smile of his was downright infectious. _He really does have a big heart, even if he likes to pretend he doesn't..._

 _Wow._ She really _was_ thinking about boys. Judy glanced furtively at Nick, afraid that he'd somehow know the direction her thoughts had taken. He'd never let her live it down. As if some higher power was trying to spare her from embarrassment, her phone began ringing.

"It's the Chief," Judy informed Nick before swiping away Bogo's scowling picture. "Sir."

"Hopps, Wilde, give me an update," came Bogo's curt reply.

Nick gave the phone a confused look. "How do you even know we're together?"

"You're always together," Bogo stated flatly as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Judy contemplated objecting purely on principle, but she had to admit it was a reasonable assumption. Things were silent between them before Bogo cleared his throat expectantly.

"Oh, right," Judy quickly licked her paws and scrambled to pick up the list of names she discarded. "We swung by a Naturalist meeting downtown after finding their symbol on several pieces of hate mail. The mammal in charge was cooperative and gave us a list of members we're checking out now."

"Any suspects?"

"No one stands out," Nick supplied. "A few mammals we might want to check out in more detail, but no one screaming 'violent kidnapper' so far."

"So in other words, you've got nothing," Bogo stated bluntly. "Well, at least one of us has results. I've managed to subpoena Arthur Beaumont's phone records. I'm uploading the information onto our server now."

"Yeah, about that: is there any way you can get us a second computer?" Nick asked he pulled up the files. "It's really slow trying to go through thousands of names with only one of these."

"You two will have to work with what you've got," said Bogo. "I can't procure equipment for officers that are supposed to be suspended from active duty. The only reason why you have that computer is because it's assigned to me.

"So we got the Chief's personal computer here, huh?" Nick smirked over his shoulder at Judy. "Should I be looking for something inappropriate here; maybe check the browser history?" Thanks to Clawhauser, Bogo's love of Gazelle was something of an open secret around the station. It wouldn't have surprised Judy to find a trove of pictures hidden away somewhere.

"Wilde, if you use that computer for anything other than your investigation, I will take your badge and feed it to you."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Sir," came Nick's contrite response.

"Now you've got work to do. Keep me informed," Bogo said before the line went dead. The Chief really could stand to sit through a bit of sensitivity training. The concept of pleasantries - or pleasantness in general - seemed lost on him.

"Y'know, by the way he was acting there's _gotta_ be something on here," Nick observed casually.

" _Don't_ ," Judy warned as she dropped down by his side and watched him scroll through the phone messages. "So, what do we have?"

"Lotta messages," Nick stated the obvious. "Lotta phone records and emails too. Arthur's quite the popular guy."

"If you were rich and famous, you probably would be too," Judy reasoned. "I guess we should start from the end and work our way back."

Judy scanned the list of messages until Nick clicked one open to reveal a rather boring grocery list Regina had sent. In fact, 'boring' seemed to sum up a large chunk of the messages between them. Reminders for appointments and dinner requests were the norm with the couple. The only interesting thing they'd learned was that Arthur and Regina had a fondness for sending each other horribly written poetry. Given some of the word choice and their reactions, it had to be deliberate. It was cute, but it still felt weird poking into other mammal's private lives, even if it was her job.

"Not really seeing any dark conspiracies here…" Nick muttered after browsing through several more messages along the same vein.

"Well, I'm not expecting him to know he was going to get kidnapped. If he had we wouldn't be here," Judy said. "Let's ignore all the text messages for now and check the emails instead."

Of course they only had access to any emails Arthur had opened through his phone, but it was a start. The first several emails were either requests from magazines and event planners, or work related. They all seemed trivial, except for one.

"This one doesn't have a subject," Nick remarked as he clicked it open. As the message loaded, they were treated to slew of numbers.

"That's… different," Judy said as she tried to make sense of it. Other than the same few digits at the start of each string of numbers, there didn't seem to be much of a pattern. "Who is this from?"

"Looks like Arthur sent it to himself," Nick supplied just as Judy glanced up at the return address.

"That explains the lack of subject," Judy guessed. "Think they might be phone numbers?"

"Yeah, I got time for some prank calls," Nick drawled. "Lemme see your phone," he reached for where her phone lay on the couch.

"Use your own phone," Judy batted his paw away. The last thing she needed was some random mammal calling her in the middle of the night.

With an exaggerated sigh, Nick pulled out his phone and started punching in the first line of numbers. "Fine, but if there's any international fees, I'm making the Chief pay for it."

The two of them waited for the call to connect, only to have an electronic operator inform them that the number was invalid. Shrugging, Nick entered a second, and by the time the third number gave the same response, it was pretty clear they weren't dealing with phone numbers.

"Y'think Arthur was encoding his messages or something?" Nick offered.

"To _himself_? No. What does he have to hide?" Judy replied.

"Like I've said: his family are rich bankers. They must have something to hide," Nick reminded her.

"Nick, c'mon. Just because _you_ used to rub shoulders with criminals doesn't make everyone a …" Judy's rebuke trailed away as a thought occurred to her. "Actually, you might be right."

"I am?"

"Not about the criminal part, I mean the bank," she elaborated. "Arthur's a banker and he works in numbers. What if these are accounts?"

"And why would Arthur be sending himself account numbers if he works in a bank?" Nick pointed out.

"I don't know. I guess we'll have to go to the bank to find out."

"Great, can't wait," Nick said. "Except most banks don't give out their clients' information, especially not ones that deal with the obscenely rich."

"Most banks aren't owned by Arthur's father and something tells me he'll do anything to find his son," Judy countered. "Unless, of course, you'd rather keep slogging through that giant list of Naturalist members?"

"Well, I do like field trips. When's the bank open?"

* * *

 **A/N:** Heyo! Sort of a fluffier chapter this time, but more plot is on the horizon. Tune in next time to see Nick and Judy take on the establishment (not really). We're grateful for the support so far and hope to see you again soon(ish).


	6. Chapter 6

Nick awoke bleary-eyed to the sound of voices creeping down the hall. He stretched out a paw and fumbled with the alarm clock on the nightstand. It took him a few moments to make out what the glowing red numbers said and he wished he hadn't. Who the hell could Judy be talking to at _five-thirty in the morning?_ No reasonable mammal would be up at this hour.

With a pained groan, Nick buried his head under his pillow, willing himself to fall back asleep. _Sleep. Sleep. Sleeeep… dammit._ After several minutes of pillow flipping and repositioning, sleep continued to evade him and Nick resigned himself to an early start. Sitting up and ripping away the sheets, he eyed his pillow and wondered if he could get away with smothering Judy. Actually, better not. She was just stubborn enough to come back and haunt him for the rest of his days.

Fighting back yawns, Nick got out of bed and made his way out into the hallway. The flickering light of the television played along the walls as he walked towards the living room. What the hell was Judy watching at this hour anyway? Infomercials? He knew she got up early to jog, but this was ridiculous.

Nick slunk along the wall, fully intent on sneaking up behind Judy and scaring the carrots out of her. But just as he was about to make his way into the living room, he stopped short at the doorway as he caught sight of his prey. Judy had moved aside the coffee table to make space in front of the T.V where she lay stretched out in the middle of the floor. The anchor in the background droned on with the morning news as Judy dipped low between her legs and touched her toes.

 _Damn, she's flexible_. Nick's short intake of breath didn't go unnoticed as one of Judy's ears twitched back in his direction.

"Nick, you there?" Judy's voice was muffled by the rug.

"Yeah, you caught me," Nick pushed himself away from the doorway with a slight shake of his head. "Is trying to break yourself in half a new favorite pastime?"

"Is leering from the shadows yours?"

Nick shrugged, "Eh, predator."

Judy shifted into another impossible position and Nick dragged his gaze away. "You justify everything that way," she playfully chided.

"Only my bad habits," Nick flopped down on the couch.

"Speaking of bad habits: how about you come jogging with me instead of wearing a groove in the couch."

"Hey - it took me years to make this groove," Nick retorted. "Besides, you're the morning mammal, not me."

Thankfully, Judy straightened up and started stretching her shoulders. "So what are you doing up?"

"Not my choice," Nick sulked. "T.V. woke me up."

Judy winced. "Oooh, sorry. Thought I had it low enough that it wouldn't wake you."

Nick waved her apology away. "Don't worry about it, I'm just not used to having company."

Although, he had been thinking about changing that lately. It's not like he didn't enjoy her company, but he wondered whether or not Judy would be keen on the idea. _Of course she'll be; she lives in a shoebox._ Figuring it was now or never, Nick gathered his courage and peeled himself away from the couch. He tried not think about how sweltering the room suddenly felt.

"So, uh…" Nick floundered on how to begin as he unconsciously tugged at the tie he wasn't wearing. Instead, his paw caught at the scruff of his throat and he awkwardly raked it over his ears, trying to look casual. "I was thinking… well I mean, we've known each other for quite a while now and uh… and since we're partners and everything, I was wondering if you'd like to move in with me - for _real_ , I mean. Full-time."

Judy's expression was unreadable as she turned to face him. Her paws slowly came up to cover her open mouth as her eyes widened in shock. "But Nick, don't you think this is a little sudden?" her voice trembled pitifully. "We hardly know each other, a-and what will my parents think? A fox and a rabbit sharing _a den?_ " she gasped dramatically as her paw swept up to her forehead. " _The scandal!_ "

Judy fell back to the floor in a mock-faint, oblivious to the fact that Nick's glare should have set her on fire. Her cackling laughter filled the room as he tried to regain his composure. "Think you're _real_ funny don'tcha, Fluff?"

"Well maybe if you didn't make it sound like a _proposal_ ," she wiped a tear away from her eye. "It's just - Nick, I just couldn't help myself. I mean, can you blame me?"

She was right, and Nick knew he was being foolish. He was making a big deal out of nothing. This was _Judy_ he was talking about. "Y'know, I'm seriously reconsidering my offer at the moment," he pouted.

"Oh, I didn't know this was a limited-time deal," Judy tossed back as her giggles subsided. "But seriously… let me think about it."

"What's there to think about?" Nick gestured to the living room at large. "This place is amazing!"

"Yeah, it is nice having a kitchen and only sharing a bathroom with _one_ mammal…" Judy rubbed her chin as she scrutinized the room. "Still, gimme a bit of time."

"Well, don't take too long," Nick said. "It's almost the end of the month and I wouldn't want you to pay the rent at your place if you don't have to."

Judy nodded. "So, since you're still up… how about going on that jog with me?"

Nick sighed as he slumped back into the couch. "I dunno, this couch is startin' to feel awfully comfy."

Judy scoffed. "Gee, I don't know how I feel about having a _lazy roommate…_ "

A single eyed peeked open. "Are we seriously doing this?"

"Am I blackmailing you into jogging with me?" Judy grinned at him devilishly. "Yes. Yes I am."

* * *

"Wow, look at all these trees!" the tireless demon beside him said _oh-so-casually_. "How come we've never been here before; is there a park nearby?" she wondered - _out loud._

Nick struggled to find the breath to reply. Twenty minutes and more than a few city blocks had passed since they began on their 'light' morning jog. Nick liked to think he was in pretty good shape after the academy, but running with Judy was an education in his deficiencies. He had unwisely allowed her to set the pace after taking it as a challenge when she mentioned slowing it down a bit. Now he was paying the price.

"N-no -" Nick wheezed. "We're just… getting… to the suburbs."

"I didn't know you lived so close to the edge of town," Judy said, and Nick was annoyed at how easily she could carry a conversation at her pace. Nick managed to shrug breathlessly in response and nearly ran into her back as she came to a stop. "We should probably start heading back, but you need to bring me down here sometime. It's nice," Judy kept jogging in place until she caught his eye. "Let's rest for a minute before we turn around."

Nick tried to give her the most grateful look he could manage under the circumstances. He hunched over, paws on his knees, and tried to catch his breath through the stitch at his side. He knew that Judy had only stopped because of him, and gave silent thanks for her small act of mercy. And she'd said that a jog would help make him _less_ tired in the mornings. Ha! Still, he could grudgingly agree with one thing: he was wide awake now.

"Sooo, I'm a little tired now and I think we should take it easy on the way back," Judy stretched her knees at his side.

"Liar," he accused.

"Yeah, well, you're no good to me dead sooo…"

Nick's chest hurt as he let out an odd sound halfway between coughing and laughing. "Okay, fine. You win. I bow to your superior bunny-hopping skills."

She at least had the decency to make the smile she gave him in return look halfway sincere. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's not your fault foxes are lacking in stamina."

"Good thing for you bunnies."

Two of them sat in companionable silence as Nick took in the grey hue of the early morning city. Here and there, the shutters were opening on cafes and storefronts. The streets were quiet except for the occasional car driving past.

"I love seeing the city like this," Judy said at last. "Everything's so... peaceful right now. It reminds me of being back home." Nick brushed the sweat out of his ear and just allowed Judy to fill the silence between them. "Y'know when I was a kit, I used to dream that this city was a paradise where everyone worked together and nothing bad ever happened. Sounds silly now, but when I'm out here like this, I can almost believe it."

"Sounds like a nice dream," Nick commented, surprising himself that he'd actually meant it. "Alright, let's get back. Arthur isn't about to find himself."

The jog back was made at a much more reasonable pace than the one before. In fact, he probably would have kept up pretty easily if he wasn't already exhausted. He fell into step behind her once more as she continued to fawn over the new route. Determined not to reach his place winded, he left the majority of the talking to her. With how enthused she sounded about his neighborhood, Nick had a good feeling that she'd accept his offer to move in.

It wouldn't even be that much of a shift really. They already spent most of their time together anyway, so it wasn't surprising they got along domestically as well. What did surprise Nick was how comfortable he felt about it all. He hadn't shared a place with anyone since his mom died, and yet two days in and they'd already established something of a routine - even if that routine included the occasional morning jog. Hell, who was he kidding? Nick knew this would become a daily occurrence. She'd pester him; he'd offer token resistance before eventually relenting. Nick was glad Judy couldn't see the smile that stole across his face at the thought.

Okay, so maybe Nick liked pressing Judy's buttons every now and then. It was endearingly cute watching her get all worked up. And besides, she gave as good as she got. He tuned out her voice as he recalled the s'mores party last night. Getting a blush out of Carrots was a rare thing, and now he knew her weakness.

Nick's gaze inadvertently dropped to said weakness as Judy's tail bobbed lightly along in front of him. He'd certainly got a reaction by bringing _that_ up. He might have gotten a little carried away with that whole… whatever he did there. Maybe he did get a bit too playful, but damn if it wasn't fun. _Distracting predators. Right._

Except, now that Nick had been staring at the bob of her tail for the better part of a few minutes, he found that it really _was_ distracting. _Look at it: so light and fluffy like a little ball of cotton._ Nick suddenly had the strange compulsion to reach out and touch Judy's tail... or maybe chase it. That would be nice too...

Nick nearly tripped up on his feet as he mentally slapped himself.

 _The hell was that?_

Judy's external musings were cut short as she flashed a concerned look his way. "Nick, are you alright?"

No. No he wasn't. He tried not to look guilty as he stalled, trying to catch his breath. "No, I'm fine. Just ahhh - just caught the edge of the pavement."

"Sure you don't want to walk instead?" she offered.

"Nah, I'm good to go," Nick assured her and, if Judy noticed his extra effort to stay beside her the rest of the way, she made no comment.

* * *

If Nick had thought that the Beaumont's mansion had been ostentatious, it had nothing on the lobby of the Beaumont's Cache & Co. bank. The massive arched ceiling of the interior was enough to make him feel even smaller than usual. Everything was marble, satin, or some kind of wood that was far too expensive for him to recognize. Nick tried his hardest not to touch anything that looked like it was worth more than his car. Which was everything.

"This is excessive," Judy marveled lowly at his shoulder as they walked towards the front desk.

"Well, excessive is in the eye of the beholder," Nick whispered back. "If _your_ name was on the building of the second largest banking institution in the world, then I'm sure you could come up with the pocket change."

"Yeah, being rich sure is expensive," she mumbled.

Normally, Nick would've had a perfect comeback to that, but ever since their jog he'd been feeling off. Actually, 'feeling off' was putting it mildly. Ever since he'd caught himself ogling his partner, he'd been struggling with a rising feeling of paranoia. Nick Wilde did _not_ ogle rabbits; he didn't ogle _anything_ other than the occasional vixen. So what the hell had happened this morning?

Nick wrestled with his thoughts as they approached the front desk. The crescent of the reception desk was just low enough to lean against as he waited to garner the secretary's attention. It had to be the case, he reasoned. All this recent talk of interspeciesism was getting to him and turning him into a deviant. Still, only one way to find out.

The secretary smiled briefly down at them past the phone at her ear, a silent plea for patience, and Nick forced himself to give her the ol' once over. She was a zebra, and an attractive one at that. He scrutinized her outfit, and while he _could_ give her kudos for not wearing something that clashed horribly with her stripes - which must've been difficult - he couldn't say she was doing it for him. Maybe it was the size difference.

Looking around for someone that wouldn't break him, he caught sight of the neighboring secretary. _A stoat, perfect._ Her giant hoop earrings were off-putting, but everything else seemed to be in the right place. Still, Nick couldn't exactly picture himself picturing her naked. Searching through the rest of the crowd, none of the mammals around were doing it for him. Instead of the sense of relief this should have brought him, a new and terrifying chill set his fur on end: what if he was only into _rabbits?_

"Welcome to Beaumont's Cache and Company, how can I help you today?" the secretary tore Nick away from his spiralling thoughts.

"Hi, we're here to see Charles Beaumont - but we don't have an appointment. Sorry," Judy added with a grimace.

Nick could tell that if the secretary didn't fear for her job, she would have rolled her eyes at them. "I'm sorry, but Mr. Beaumont is an _incredibly_ busy mammal," the secretary said with a hint of condescension. "If you'd like to make an appointment, I'm happy to take your name under consideration."

Nick's nerves were far too frayed for patience right now. He pulled out his badge and pushed it across the desk. "Well, if Mr. Beaumont could _make_ the time, the ZPD would _very much_ like to talk to him about his son."

To her credit, the secretary's smile faltered for only a moment. _They must pay really well here._ "If you could follow me upstairs to our waiting area, I'll see what I can do."

Nick put on his most charming smile. "Thanks, we'll do that."

The secretary circled the desk and gestured for them to follow. Her heels clicked on the marble floor all the way to the elevators, and Nick took back his earlier praise of her sense of style. _Heels?_ Who did she think she was - Gazelle? The popstar might have made heels a thing, but that didn't make it any less ridiculous to see them in everyday wear. As the elevator doors closed behind them, Nick caught Judy pointedly staring at them and tried not to laugh.

The ride was made in complete silence, broken only by the ding of each passing floor. The doors opened onto the most posh waiting room Nick had ever seen in his life. It felt more like a smoking lounge than a waiting room. There was even a self-serve bar dominating a corner of the room.

"Please take a seat," the secretary nodded towards the couches arranged around a central table. "Someone will be along for you shortly. In the meantime, feel free to help yourselves to some refreshments."

Taking a seat on the couch, Nick shot an appreciative glance at the bar and wondered if Judy would scold him for drinking on the job. After all, he figured he'd never get another chance to sample anything so fine again. Normally, he would've gone for it just to get a reaction out of her, but right now he still felt too awkward to bother. The last thing Nick wanted right now was to give Judy any reason to focus _more_ on his behavior.

"Did you _see_ those heels?" Judy whispered to him as soon as their escort disappeared down the hallway.

Worried that anything he might say would betray his inner turmoil, Nick settled for a non-committal, "Yep."

"Y'know, I get that Gazelle made wearing shoes a fashion statement, but it still looks really weird," Judy echoed Nick's earlier thoughts.

"Yep," Nick agreed.

If Judy noticed his shortness, she didn't show it. Instead, she continued on their one-sided conversation about the strangeness of modern fashion trends like wigs and tail extensions. Nick only half-listened as his thoughts kept drifting back to his earlier test. What if he really _was_ into rabbits? He couldn't help but blame this whole existential crisis on Judy. If she hadn't made him go jogging with her today, then none of this would have happened. In fact, he was probably just blowing this out of proportion and wasn't attracted to rabbits at all.

Nick surreptitiously checked Judy out under the guise of following her conversation. Her ears were too long, and expressive to the point of distraction. Her features seemed to scrunch inward towards the pink button of her nose, topped by pair of almost comically large eyes. On the whole, she looked typical for her species. Nick guessed that Judy looked good as far as bunnies were concerned, but it wasn't exactly driving him wild. His whole reaction this morning was probably just a fluke.

So why was he getting so bent out of shape over it?

Nick was forced to tuck away that thought for later inspection as Charles Beaumont ducked through the doorway. His chestnut fur was flecked with grey, the lines around his eyes were deeper, and his rack had a few more points than Arthur's, but other than that, Charles was the spitting image of his son aged up a few decades. The suit was definitely familiar though; Nick had seen its like in the dozens of photos that lined the Beaumont's trophy hall.

"Good morning officers, I understand you'd like to talk to me about Arthur?" Charles said in greeting. "I was hoping we could take this conversation into my office."

"Of course," Judy nodded up at him.

Nick was glad to adopt his professional facade as he followed Charles down the hallway to his office. All thoughts about Judy and her tail fled his mind as he was once again left to focus on the case. Charles waved them inside and Nick was treated to the most expensive view of the city ambition and money could buy. The city spread out from beyond the the floor to ceiling windows, the view completely unobstructed by the less impressive buildings that surrounded them. Tundratown and the Rainforest District clashed into a sloping mountain range, giving way to the Meadowlands along the north edge of the city, and Nick imagined that if he pressed against the glass he'd be able to make out the tiny pinpricks of mammals milling about on the streets below.

Of course, Charles' desk faced away from the window and Nick couldn't imagine living a life where a view like that was so commonplace that you chose to ignore it. As Nick seated himself, he glanced around the office and was surprised to find how spartan it was. Given the waiting room, he'd been expecting something a little more... extravagant. Instead, aside from a small bar and the typical office furnishings, the room was mostly bare. The only personal decoration to be found in the whole office was a small picture of Charles' family perched next to his computer. Still, at least the chairs were nice.

Judy hopped up to share his seat, and Nick's professional mask faltered as he wondered if this was typical of her. No - wait - yes: she always did this. Nothing was different. This was _normal_.

The snap of the door behind him brought Nick back to reality. Charles seated himself heavily at his desk with a tug of his tie and said, "I take it that since the two of you are here, and Arthur is _not_ , that you still haven't found my son."

 _Well, damn._ That was a little more direct that Nick had been expecting. He cut a glance at Judy to find that her ears had dropped flat against her head. "W-well, no," she said. "Not yet. But, we were hoping you could help us."

"I've already told Chief Bogo everything I know," Charles said. "That was _four days ago._ My son has been missing for five, and I would hope that the ZPD's _finest_ might do something more efficient with their time than coming here to ask me more questions."

Nick could tell by the way Judy's gaze dropped away to her pen and notepad that she was trying to keep her cool. "We're doing everything we can, sir," she said evenly.

Nick was about to work on damage control, but Charles relented as he slumped heavily against his seat. "I apologize," he sighed as he rubbed at the bridge of his snout. "The last few days has been difficult for Patricia and I. Trying to pretend that everything is alright while our son is missing has been hard for the both of us."

Nick didn't envy him. Being a cop often left you seeing the worst side of mammals - and not just the criminals. Officers were constantly left dealing with the fear, anger, and grief of the very mammals they were trying to help. It was often the case that he and Judy took on the role of counselors whether they wanted to or not. It could get get emotionally draining at times. There were days when Nick wanted nothing more than to go home, slip beneath the covers, and let the world take care of itself for a while.

"We understand, but we're not here just to interview you again," Nick said. "My partner and I found a set of numbers in Arthur's phone records and we think they might be account numbers. It looks like he emailed these numbers to himself a few days before his disappearance and they could be relevant."

Judy pulled out the sheet of numbers from her notepad and slid it across the desk. "Do you know what Arthur was doing at work for the last few days?"

Charles took the piece of paper and looked it over for a few moments, his face betraying nothing. "You say my son sent these to himself?"

"That's how it looks." Judy's choice of words was careful, and with good reason. Charles' posture took on a guarded air as he carefully set the paper down.

"Well, I can tell you they're not account numbers," Charles said. "They're transaction numbers. The first three numbers represent the routing numbers of our different branches."

There was a short beat a silence until Nick prompted, " _And_ …?"

"And that's all I can say," Charles sighed. "You have to understand that this institution handles millions of financial transactions every day from around the globe. Regulations require that we cooperate with federal investigations, but they also require a federal warrant. Our clients expect a certain measure of privacy when they do business with us, so you can see how my hooves are tied on the matter."

"I don't understand," Judy said. "If you're trying to protect your son, then _help us._ Arthur might not have the time for us to get a warrant - and that's assuming we can even get one."

"I mean, c'mon, you _own_ the bank," Nick gestured around the room at large. "You telling me you can't bend the rules for your own son?"

"I'm well aware of that," Charles said tersely. "But I have a responsibility to this company as well as the law. I'm sure the two of you can understand _that_."

"We understand," Judy deflated. "Well, I guess we'll stay in touch and -"

Charles calmly stood up and checked his pocket watch. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more help, but I've got an important lunch meeting to attend. I'll be back in… let's say, forty-five minutes? I trust I can leave my computer signed in while I'm away." As he reached the door to his office, he stopped for a moment to add, "Oh, and one more thing: while I can't be held responsible for your actions while I'm gone, if any of this sees the inside of a courtroom, I'll be forced to file a misconduct suit against the ZPD that will ensure you two can't even get a job as a rent-a-cops. Understood?"

Nick didn't have to be a genius to understand what was going on, or how illegal it was. Not that he really cared. "Perfectly."

"Thank you," Judy said.

Charles paused momentarily in the doorway, "Just find my son." He slipped through the doorway and the door snapped closed behind him.

"C'mon, we don't have a lot of time." Judy hopped out of the chair and circled the desk. Nick perched on the chair next to her as she flattened out the list of numbers and started punching them into the keyboard. "Here, you play secretary for me," she added as she handed Nick her trusty carrot-pen and notepad.

The first transaction on the query showed a sizeable withdrawal and Nick whistled at the number. "Wow, that's a _lot_ of money. You ever take forty grand out at once?"

"Focus, Nick," Judy reminded him. "Just write down the account number, the date, and the location for all these withdrawals."

Several tense minutes passed as they worked down the list of numbers, Nick worrying that a janitor or a real secretary would catch them at any moment. Then again, you'd have to be crazy to walk into the president's office unannounced during business hours.

"Y'know, I think I'm noticing a pattern here," Nick muttered.

Judy's ear twitched in his direction as she typed in the last string of numbers. "Aside from the fact that they're all withdrawing the same amount?"

"That, plus the accounts and which branches the withdrawals are coming from are starting to repeat," Nick pointed out. "I think we're dealing with the same couple dozen mammals here."

"Do you think Arthur was involved with some sort of embezzlement ring?"

"Nah, the whole point of embezzlement is to _hide_ the fact that you're taking money and this seems pretty straight forward," Nick said. "Besides, I don't think Arthur was hurting for cash."

Judy frowned at the screen. "So you think he found out about something he wasn't supposed to?"

Nick looked up to jot down the information of the last transaction and shrugged. "Probably. He was trying pretty hard to keep anyone else from finding out what he knew."

"That's all of them," Judy said as her finger hovered over the computer's power switch. "Should I shut it off? I don't know the protocol when it comes to illegally snooping in someone's computer."

"Leave it on." Nick handed Judy back her notepad. "Something tells me that Charles will want to see this too."

* * *

Nick was starved by the time they arrived back at his apartment. Driving through the afternoon traffic had been especially difficult considering he would've normally pulled into the drive-through of any number of fast food places, but Judy had chided him for even suggesting it. As it was, Nick sat at his coffee table trying to distract himself from his growling stomach by organizing all the information he'd written down earlier onto color coded sticky notes. He'd been forced to double up on colors after he'd run out, but Nick now found himself staring at twenty-three separate rows representing the different accounts. He could just make out Judy humming from the kitchen cooking something - _probably healthy_.

"Do you want any help in there?" he called towards the kitchen, anxious to have at least _some_ small amount of influence over what he was eating this afternoon. "Y'know, believe it or not: I can cook too."

"No you can't!" she laughed back. "Quick fix food isn't cooking."

She had him there. Nick turned his attention back to the table and tried once again to ignore the pangs of hunger in his stomach. The problem was: there was nothing there to distract him. All his notes were organized and nothing else seemed to jump out at him. Everything was routine: the accounts, the locations, even the dates… actually, now that Nick had all the sticky notes lined up, it kind of looked like a calendar. It seemed like all the accounts made a withdrawal every two weeks, alternating every other week without fail. Grabbing a stack of notes, Nick made his way into the kitchen to show Judy. She might take pity on him and reward him with something that wasn't a vegetable.

"Hey Carrots, take a look at this," Nick said as Judy looked up from chopping up her namesake. "I think I figured out the system behind these whole withdrawal things."

"Great, lay it on me. Kinda busy at the moment," she said and unloaded a cutting board full of vegetables into the stew.

"So it looks like the random withdrawal dates weren't random at all," Nick explained as he stole a piece of celery over her shoulder.

Judy pointed her knife at him and narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Hey - you can wait til it's done or I'll be adding fox to this."

Nick crunched as loudly as he could into the celery. "I'm sure I'd taste delicious."

It felt like things were starting to go back to normal between them. Nick's momentary lapse of sanity seemed to be just that: momentary, and he was all too ready to forget it had ever happened. He leaned easily against the kitchen countertop and continued on.

"As I was saying, the withdrawal dates on the accounts run on a bi-weekly schedule," he said. "So, I'm thinking we stake out one of these banks and see who walks out with a suitcase full of cash."

"Good idea," Judy said and paused briefly dip a spoon into the stew for a taste test. "Hmm. One problem though: how do we figure out which mammal with the cash is the one we want? It _is_ a bank after all."

She had a point there.

"Uhh, okay, hadn't thought that far ahead yet," Nick admitted.

Judy stirred the stew idly for a few moments until her ears suddenly perked up. "Okay, I got it: we can use the Bank Secrecy Act. If we tell the bank manager that we're looking into a money laundering case, they're required by law to assist us," Judy smirked up at him. "We'll inform the bank that our suspect will be coming in that day to withdraw forty grand, and the bank tips us off when they leave."

"And we're going to do this without a warrant hooow?" Nick prompted.

Judy shrugged, " _We're_ not, Bogo will - he's way more intimidating. He'll call for his usual progress report in a few hours and we can ask him then."

Nick wasn't about to argue that. If anyone could put the fear of god into a bank manager, it was Bogo. "Okay, sounds like a plan. Now… when do we eat?"

"Never figured you'd be so eager to eat carrots," Judy teased.

"Yeah, well, I can always dig those out."

"You will _not_ ," she threatened with the tasting spoon this time, broth flicking him in the face. "In fact, I think I'll be adding carrots to _all_ your meals from now on."

Nick laughed, equal parts amused and intimidated. Judy took her cooking a little _too_ seriously for his liking. "Is that so?"

Instantly the spoon was gone and she was back to being all smiles, "Yup, I've decided to move in."

" _You have?_ " Nick barely managed to refrain from squeaking out. He had nearly forgotten about his offer. After his near panic attack at the bank, it kind of slipped his mind. He wasn't entirely sure if he was ready to deal with the prospect of being around Judy all the time after 'The Incident' this morning. _Of course you are. That's why you asked her. What are you worrying about? This is what you wanted._ "That's ahhh… that's great!"

Judy's smile faltered at his hesitation, and Nick internally winced. "Hey, are you _sure_ you're okay with this? You've been acting a little weird today, so if you're uncomfortable with it, I'll understand if you've changed your mind. I don't have to move in - it's fine."

Nick had never given a girl the whole 'it's not you, it's me' speech and he'd be damned if he was about to now. "Nah, it's fine. I wouldn't ask if I didn't mean it. I'm just a little jittery today, that's all." He waited with baited breath, hoping she'd buy his weak excuse.

Several intense heartbeats passed before she finally tsked, "I told you drinking coffee after a jog was a bad idea. So, I was thinking after we eat, we can head over to my place and pick up the rest of my stuff. It can all fit in a couple of boxes, so it'll be easy."

"That sounds great," he agreed, and did his best to believe it. He didn't have to try hard. "So… about that food?"

"Out of the kitchen, I'm tired of your backseat cooking," Judy shooed him off.

Nick relented, knowing when he was beaten. With an exaggerated groan of hunger, he slunk off to set the table. When that failed to distract him for more than a minute, he retired to his seat, content to amuse himself by watching Judy cook. He was struck with how different is was seeing her in this position. This wasn't 'Judy the tough as nails police officer', or even 'Judy the friend he watched cheesy noir with'. This was 'Judy the farm girl that loves cooking and is flexible enough to make a cat jealous'. It surprised Nick how well this new facet of her seemed to fit with the rest.

He wondered if she ever looked at him and thought the same.

Nick knew he'd changed since they first met, but he was amazed at how different he was with her around. When he was with Judy, he found it hard to care about what the rest of the world thought of him because _she_ believed in him. And the craziest thing of all was that that belief actually made him a better mammal. And it wasn't because she tried to make him, but rather because he found himself trying to live up to it. Nick should have bothered by how much of his life was built around her, but he just didn't seem to mind.

As Nick drifted out of his thoughts, he realized that he'd been staring at Judy with a stupid grin on his face for the better part of a few minutes. He was lucky she was too focused on cooking to pay any attention to him because he was back to doing that stupid thing he'd done this morn-

And Nick's thoughts suddenly ground to a halt.

 _Oh._

The bottom dropped out of Nick's stomach and his head thunked onto the table because everything finally made perfect sense to him. He knew exactly what was wrong with him, even if he wished he didn't.

 _Oh shit._

* * *

 **A/N** : Heyo. We'd like to tell you a fabulous tale about how were were abducted by aliens and had to stop a plot to kill the president while simultaneously quenching the flames of a burning orphanage... but that would be lying, and lying is wrong. We were just off doing other things. The fact is: it's summer, and we're taking our time to enjoy it. We'd say we're sorry… but that too would be lying. If it makes you feel any better, one of us got a wicked tan.

Anyways, our next update will hopefully come sooner. Until then, thanks for all the support and feedback.


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